Category: Jumbo Cryptic

A solving time of 34 minutes, occasionally feeling a bit dozy, particularly when I was left with a lot of white space in the centre; but the Crossword Club scoreboard tells me that Magoo took … Read more “Times Jumbo 972”

This one seemed a step up from the usual saturday jumbo, and since there was not a great deal of obscure vocab, I guess that must mean some cleverly misleading cluing. Either that or old … Read more “Jumbo 971 – A real corker this one.”

Solving time: 1:42:23 – with one wrong (I couldn’t spell RATATOUILLE) I made fairly steady progress through this one, although I did it in lots of short bursts. There were a few words I didn’t … Read more “Times Jumbo 970 (17 Mar 2012)”

Many thanks to Linxit, who’s posting this puzzle for me because on the day the solution appears I’ll probably be without Internet access. I found this one very straightforward, and solved it in under 17 … Read more “Jumbo 969 (10th March)”

I got through this one fairly steadily, and only needed to check a couple afterwards. I am guessing 52D will be unfamilar to most. When blogging, I try to leave out the explanations of the clues … Read more “Jumbo 968”

A solving time of 32 minutes, and a puzzle requiring some thought. Lots of playfulness in both definitions and wordplay, which I find to be something which tends to divide the solving community; most of … Read more “Times Jumbo 967”

Seems like many of my Jumbo colleagues leave the blog until the second weekend rather than the Thursday when the competition closes, so I think I may do likewise. Makes it easier to find the … Read more “Jumbo 966”

Solving time: Just over 2 hours – with one use of aids. I didn’t find much to enjoy in this puzzle. There were a lot of words I didn’t know – REPINE, COLZA, RARA AVIS, … Read more “Times Jumbo 965 (11 Feb 2012) – Stretching my vocabulary”

(I believe I’m blogging on the correct Jumbo this time – apologies for the dual posting on 963, which sghanson had already covered beautifully). My solving time was around 22 minutes. I found this one … Read more “Times Jumbo 964”

A straightforward Jumbo, with a rather botanical feel – ORACHE (18ac), PERICARP (30ac), OPUNTIAS (6dn) and MARIPOSA (42dn) were probably the most obscure answers. Personally, I’ll take any number of plant terms in preference to … Read more “Times Jumbo 963”