Category: Jumbo Cryptic

This being published on New Year’s Day, it behoves me to wish you all the best for 2018, even though you wont get to read this until after the answers have been published on 13th … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1302 – 1 Jan 2018, What was this blogger’s first New Year’s Resolution?”

I spent over an hour wrestling with this puzzle that appeared during Twixtmas, so I guess it gave me something to do.  My time suggests it was on the trickier side of average and it … Read more “Times Jumbo 1301”

I found this puzzle quite tricky, with a stuffing and sprouts overdose perhaps responsible for my stupor. A few unknowns, though only one needed to go in with fingers crossed. As this is my blog … Read more “Boxing Day Jumbo 1300”

It is harder to blog the Jumbos than the straight 15x15s because, given that there are a whacking 60 clues to sort out instead of the usual 30, and anything particularly brilliant runs a risk … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1299 (23/12/17): The Hunting of the Quirk”

Nothing too contentious in this one, although there seem to be more double definition type clues than normal, and most of them are not particularly cryptic. 44A was an unknown that I needed help to … Read more “Jumbo 1298”

‘Tis the season to be jolly… I’m getting to rather enjoy blogging the Jumbo. Yes, it’s a lot of clues (and a lot of work for the setter!), but I get two weeks to do … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1297 – What is large, grey, and wears glass slippers?”

Season’s greetings all.  This puzzle appears to have detained me for a little over 50 minutes so I’d say that put it just on the easy side of average.  In places there seem to be … Read more “JUMBO 1296”

A tricky but fun puzzle containing umpteen instances of well-hidden definitions, which to me is one of the hallmarks of the best crosswords. A few things I didn’t know, but the wordplay seemed pretty unambiguous … Read more “Jumbo 1295”

I really enjoyed this Jumbo which went in easily, not I think because it was overly simplistic but because it was well clued and entertaining throughout. There was an archaic feel to some of the … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1294 (18/11/17): Feline Groovy”

This was mostly straightforward, but I am afraid I have a big issue with 2D where I cannot separate two possible solutions. One is slightly favoured by the wordplay, the other favoured by the final … Read more “Jumbo 1293”