Category: Jumbo Cryptic

Solving time: Probably about 3 hours all told, but I wasn’t really concentrating a lot of the time. I found this one quite hard going, and I didn’t really get on the setter’s wavelength throughout. … Read more “Times Jumbo 1115 (18 Oct 2014)”

Great to see so many of you at the Times Championship last Saturday – congratulations and/or commiserations to all participants. I thought this was another medium-difficulty Jumbo, but witb some answers that solvers may have … Read more “Times Jumbo 1114”

I enjoyed this one as there are a number of clues with clever definitions and wordplay, and almost every clue has a very smooth surface reading. My compliments to the compiler. I did not time … Read more “Jumbo 1113”

Solved in just under 31 minutes, and usually I reckon anything under 35 on a Jumbo is about par for the course in terms of difficulty. Lots of nice clues, though. With Jumbos, which attract … Read more “Times Jumbo 1112”

Strange one this, where one clue (8D) felt like it took about as long as the whole rest put together. The clues all went in quite quickly, and then I stared at S-A-D-E for ages. … Read more “Jumbo 1111 – September 20th – “ME NO UNDER-STANDEE””

Solving time: An enjoyable couple of hours My apologies for being a few days late with this one, but I have a lot going on at the moment, and this one slipped down the priority … Read more “Times Jumbo 1110 (13 Sep 2014)”

Apologies for posting this so late today! Overall I though this was medium-difficulty, but for some reason it took me ages to get 32dn (BARNARDO). As usual, * indicates an anagram. Across 1 RIDING HABIT … Read more “Times Jumbo 1109”

Apologies for the delay on this. Internet connection at our first Turkish hotel was not up to much. This Jumbo was published on August Bank Holiday Monday. Nothing contentious – unless anyone can read more … Read more “Jumbo 1108”

A solving time of 27 minutes backs up my feeling at the time that this was a pretty straightforward offering by Jumbo standards, but perfectly enjoyable holiday fare. Several nice definitions stood out, along with … Read more “Times Jumbo 1107 (Bank Holiday)”

Solving time: About two hours. I found this quite tricky with some well-disguised definitions. Apologies for the late blog, but I’ve been holidaying in Wales for the last week and I’m trying to catch up … Read more “Times Jumbo 1105 (16 Aug 2014)”