Category: Quick Cryptic

A neat and entertaining Quick Crossword to end the week from Rongo with a cheeky cryptic device that had me chuckling, although some may consider it groan-worthy. Elsewhere some fine surfaces and, I think, generally … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1499 by Rongo – I love to go a vandering….”

On the gentle side today from Oink. A fairly straight solve, although a shoddy bit of spelling at 6d returned the Unlucky! sign a bit after the six minute mark. That’s about as quick as … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1498 by Oink”

I finished this in an average time, but only by leaving some of the clues unparsed until the end. There are some lovely neat clues amongst a few rather clunky ones, and my COD goes … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1497 by Pedro”

This was all going well and would have finished inside 10 minutes had it not been for 8dn. I took an extra minute or so to realise what was happening and then, as ever, it … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1496 by Mara”

Nothing here to break anyone out in a cold sweat. Some straightforward anagrams, obvious cryptic definitions and double definitions make up the main framework and there are no other startling devices to write home (or … Read more “QC 1495 by Izetti”

A pleasant 6-minute solve for me. Plenty of anagrams, a couple of double definitions, and a very nice triple, too which you don’t see often in the QC. I was more thrown by the few that were … Read more “Quick Cryptic 1494 by Hurley”

I think I have blogged a Des puzzle only once before, in the New Year of 2017, when I found his style entertaining and accommodating.  I have no time for you today, as several serious … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1493 by Des”

Introduction Would have finished just under 6 minutes, which is exceptionally quick for me. But I took an extra 70 seconds to figure out 20 Across, which I only got by trawling the alphabet for … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1492 by Teazel”

Still in my run of 12 minute solves so either I’m getting slower or the QCs have upped their game a bit. There seemed to be a lot of positional clues throughout this crossword and … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1491 by Joker”

At 6 minutes this was equal to my fastest regular solving time as achieved on 30 previous occasions. I’ve beaten it only twice over the years, coming in at 5 minutes. For the record, I … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1490 by Orpheus”