Category: Jumbo Cryptic

I found this mostly quite straight-forward, but one or two of the clues are a bit tricky… and one mystifies me if there isn’t something missing. Perhaps one of you can explain. [Edit: Thanks to … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1292 – Why did the Polish elephant cross the slip road?”

Sorry this blog is so late folks.  I didn’t get a chance to finsih the solve until I was on the train back from the Championships the weekend after publication.  Last weekend was hectic and … Read more “Times Jumbo 1291”

This one was on the easy side from a solving point of view, apart from an old nemesis at 35D, but there are a couple of parsings that could do with a second opinion. I’ll … Read more “Jumbo 1290”

Soooooooo, the idea is to come back to this and decorate it with some witty repartee between now (Friday lunchtime) and tomorrow morning: the flaw in this plan is that I’m off to York on … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1289: His Farce From His Elbow”

This was not too difficult, although there are a few clues that may be more difficult for overseas solvers. The US terms are more commonly found over here although I had not come across 39A … Read more “Jumbo 1288”

This Jumbo was on the easy side – indeed a lot of the clues would not have been out of place in the Quick Crossword. My time of a bit over 3/4 hour was only … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1287 – Why do elephants paint their toenails red?”

Here we go again.  I’d say we were in straightforward / average territory here as this took me 50 minutes across two sessions. First in was IN ARREARS, last was HAUL OFF. Across 1 RUMBUSTIOUS – … Read more “TIMES JUMBO 1286”

This was on the easier side for a Jumbo, I think, with some interesting vocab but no major conundrums. I didn’t know the colour at 6D but the checking letters steered the anagram in the … Read more “Jumbo 1285”

Dear friends, I know you all miss those halcyon Fridays when to visit times_xwd_times was to have to scroll through a solid wall of verlaine posts for at least five minutes, and in that spirit … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo #1284: Number Crunching”

Again I cannot be absolutely sure at the time of compiling this blog that all are correct, but I can justify every entry. Nothing to complain about – unless you are put off by the … Read more “Jumbo 1283”