Category: Jumbo Cryptic

I thought this was just a great jumbo, full of good words, smooth surfaces, concisely brilliant cryptic definitions and a general uneasy feeling that the setter might be a couple of steps ahead of me … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1344: No Time To Stay Outdoors And Spoon”

I don’t recall anything particularly tricky with this one. The only unknown solution was 18A, but the wordplay was clear. If I had to pick a favourite clue from this it would probably be 10D. … Read more “Jumbo 1343”

Hello all. I found this an entertaining and somewhat educational Jumbo, with some lovely wordplay and an eclectic mix of general knowledge – some of which was beyond my ken, but the wordplay was generously … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1342 – 8th September”

First of all, thanks very much to the setter for the “wave” at 1 across.  I’m going out on a limb and saying it isn’t coincidence given that it’s the first clue in a puzzle … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1341”

One of the best Jumbos I can remember blogging, this – quite often there’s the feeling that a Jumbo setter might have (completely understandably, really!) gone into churn mode to get the job done, but … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1339: Cracking Toast”

This one required an average solving time but it felt harder than that – there were several answers that I had to biff and then reverse-engineer the parsing. FOI 5A, LOI 47D. I very much liked … Read more “Summer Bank Holiday Jumbo 1340”

I hope this is all correct – we have just moved house and this was completed in a bit of a rush. I don’t have any issues with any of the clues. 47A is a … Read more “Jumbo 1338”

Many thanks to Johninterred for swapping shifts on this one so that I could enjoy my holiday and not panic about solving and blogging Jumbo 1336 at a time when I should be sleeping, unpacking … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1337”

When this was published, I was in the middle of a trienniel reunion with friends who started singing together over 40 years ago, meeting for a few days to sing at the services in Southwell … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1336 – 4th August”

A puzzle of about average difficulty with just a couple of unknowns. I see quite a lot of 1-error entries in the leaderboard, which I would guess are as a result of people either sharing … Read more “Jumbo 1335”