Category: Jumbo Cryptic

Having a bad run on the Jumbos lately.  This was another one that took an hour and a half, and from memory I resorted to aids at some point, but I can’t recall where. I’m … Read more “Jumbo 1232 October 22, 2016 – Attempting to 49ac”

Nothing to scare the horses here and some fun along the way. First in was BEER MUG and last was TREE RING. Away we go then. Across 1 BEER MUG  – ER + MUG (features … Read more “TIMES JUMBO 1231”

A puzzle of average difficulty but containing enough interesting vocab to entertain. I won’t have easy access to the Internet from now until Tuesday afternoon but rest assured I will address any questions/comments then if … Read more “Jumbo 1230”

There was one answer (57ac) that I hadn’t come across before – otherwise I thought this was fairly straightforward. Hope to see some of you at, or after, the Times Championship in London next Saturday! … Read more “Times Jumbo 1229”

Fairly straightforward, but I made a careless error on 7D. I was slightly surprised to find two words in here that were also in the Saturday prize crossword on the same day, with almost the … Read more “Jumbo 1228”

Have to admit to having struggled with this one.  Took well over an hour, had to look a couple up for confirmation and still managed to get the French composer wrong.  I think it was … Read more “Jumbo 1227 September 17, 2016 – Cryptathon”

I solved this in the garden with nothing to use as a timer other than the passage of the sun but I’d say it took me comfortably less than an hour so falls into the … Read more “TIMES JUMBO 1226”

Andy Burch sent me this last week to add to our collection of puzzle indexes from the books. This is quite an old one, with puzzles from 2008. Not a good year for us on … Read more “Times Jumbo Cryptic Crossword Book 11 – Puzzle Index”

I found this one something of a slog at the time, with a slew of unknowns and not much in the way of humour, but going through it again there were some deceptive surface readings … Read more “Jumbo 1225”

A not-too-difficult (I thought) Jumbo for the Bank Holiday Monday. As always, * indicates an anagram. Across 1 GORKI – hidden in St PetersburG OR KIrov 4 TANTRIC – TAN + TRICc 8 ADDICTION – … Read more “Times Jumbo 1224 (Monday August 29th)”