Category: Quick Cryptic

“Well, this is a lovely entertaining QC”, I thought as I worked through this puzzle from Mara. I am reminded that my son has his driving test next week by the amount of reversing involved. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1489 by Mara – Shedding a tear for the deer”

On more of an even keel today after a bit of a struggle with yesterday’s: I was four minutes over my target with that one and came in two minutes under today, so it wasn’t … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1488 by Izetti”

Not easy for me, resorting to the downs to get anywhere, and ending up with my worst time in a while. I thought that all four long answers were difficult to get, despite seeing how … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1487 by Pedro”

11 minutes needed here to complete an interesting QC full of great surfaces. In addition to familiar QC fare, there are a few twists in the parsing which would have made Agatha Christie happy. I … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1486 by Wurm”

Another easy Monday puzzle. I think the FOI was 1A, and LOI was 5D, but once again, as with the last one I blogged, not because that was the most diffcult clue but just because … Read more “QC 1485 by Joker”

Perhaps a bit chewier than recent offerings, but with a fair share of write-ins. LOI 1 dn, which I did not know. Across 1 Support friend grabbing editor to issue retractions? (4-5) BACK-PEDAL – BACK … Read more “Quick Cryptic 1484 by Rodney”

Well I must have been on Tracy’s wavelength today, because I completed this in 7m 4s, which is probably a PB when all parsing is included.  I expect to see some very fast times quoted … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1483 by Tracy”

Introduction Solved this one while on the most obnoxious phone call with Amazon, trying to locate some missing packages. Despite being highly distracted, I didn’t find this one too difficult. It did seem that there … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1482 by Hurley”

13 minutes – so not easy for me – with the left hand side going in a lot faster than the right. LOI 4dn. I enjoyed the short, sharp clues (8ac, 11ac, 20ac and 1dn) … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1481 by Oink”

My solving time was 9 minutes but I lost at least a minute towards the end trying to find something to fit the checkers at 1ac. After a couple of QCs with very few anagrams … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1480 by Trelawney”