Category: Quick Cryptic

Today we have what I think is a pleasant middle-of-the-road Quick Cryptic from our old friend Wurm. I was off to a flying start with 1A, 7A and 8A and was only held up by the actress, finishing in 4:36. LOI was 21A, which I needed the checkers to see. 4D, though, is maybe a bit of a tricky cryptic definition for a QC. How did you all get on?

I found this a touch on the easy side of average difficulty.

Another eminently doable puzzle today, with only one word to be found nowhere but in cryptic crosswords (19dn) and usually clued as ‘sash’ or similar.

This was an odd solve as I didn’t click with any acrosses until somewhere in the bottom half. The SE then filled in followed by NE and then the rest, finishing in the SW. My last two were the crossing 17ac and 14dn.
This all seemed to take an age, yet I finished 30 seconds within 10 minutes.

I’m covering for Kitty this week as she is on holiday.

This was deceptively difficult.

Well, I’m delighted to say that this puzzle took me less than 7 minutes to complete, fully parsed.

6:33, which I would say is the time I tend to get when I have a lock on enough of the wordplay in each clue to biff the rest. Sadly, I wasn’t able to fully enjoy this puzzle, as I am currently trying to stay sane on “vacation” with my kids.

This was a long way from a smooth solve – having to leave clues for later all over the grid. It seemed to take ages, so when I finished with 12dn with the clock stopped at 12 minutes, it didn’t seem too bad.

Solving time: 10 minutes. A swift return by Orpheus who set for us only last Wednesday.