Category: Quick Cryptic

Given the profusion of anagrams and double definitions, I’m guessing this will be straightforward for most. It felt a bit samey, though I did like 17ac and 2d. 5 minutes for me. Across 1 Wicked … Read more “Quick Cryptic 1924 by Mara”

A nice concise crossword from Hurley, with plenty of good long answers (which I find help me when solving).  There are a couple of harder bits of parsing, but no obtuse GK.  I was somewhat … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1923 by Hurley”

Introduction 5:26. Delightful puzzle! Easy enough in the top half that I thought I’d race through, but the bottom half was sufficiently chewy to make it a puzzle of substance. Hope you enjoyed it. Solutions … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1922 by Izetti”

Reasonably smooth sailing but some sticky spots around the grid which had to be ground out – LOI was 9ac and I came home in a very satisfying 5 seconds under 10 minutes. 7ac seemed … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1921 by Trelawney”

Solving time: 8 minutes. I don’t often report on surface readings as I’ve trained myself to ignore them when solving, but reviewing them for the blog I was struck today by how excellent they are. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1920 by Tracy”

This is, I think, only my second Jalna Quick Cryptic to blog. On the tricky side, I thought and my time of 7:25 is my slowest for 4 weeks. 8D was a new word for … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1919 by Jalna”

Around average difficulty today from Breadman: I was 8 minutes on the button, coming back to finish in the top-left. Some, like 21ac, were easier to biff than to parse, and there was a good … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1918 by Breadman”

LOI and COD to 1ac, which made for a slow start but a satisfying penny-drop moment at the end. I also had a chuckle at 4dn. I wonder if our international friends are familiar with … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1917 by Wurm”

With apologies to those uninterested in football, I’ve found it impossible not to draw references from Sunday’s game. I found this something of a test – not in the same league as the Italian football … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1916 by Joker”

Great fun today from my oldest adversary Teazel, and I would say more fun than challenge (at least as far as I was concerned). What says the court of opinion? Several anagrams, well signposted, as … Read more “QC 1915 by Teazel”