Category: Quick Cryptic

Nothing to scare the horses this morning. Started off with a long sequence of write-ins, and apart from the minor peeve at 9ac, a pleasant solve. Hard to pick a winner, perhaps 6dn for the elegant surface. … Read more “Quick Cryptic 1214 by Teazel”

For some unaccountable reason, this gentle puzzle by Pedro took me 17 minutes, 2 minutes over my target, although I can’t understand why looking back.  I think it took me a couple of minutes to … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1213 by Pedro”

Introduction First off, thank you to (almost) everybody for the kind comments about last week’s blog. I hoped it might offer some inspiration to solvers who were struggling to up their game, and it seems … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1212 by Mara”

I found this an interesting and tricky puzzle which I finished in the NW with 1dn then loi 10ac. The letter K makes several appearances and there are some long anagrams. My 13 minutes did … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1211 by Joker”

My solving time was 13 minutes with delays in the lower RH corner over 20, 22ac and 22dn. Prior to that it had all been going rather well and I had been well on target to … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1210 by Breadman”

A very relatively gentle offering from Teazel that should provide encouragement to our less-experienced solvers, and maybe result in PBs for some.[Edit: It would appear I’ve underestimated the difficulty and 1D has been troublesome for … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1209 by Teazel”

A gentle enough puzzle by Izetti’s standards. After Jeremy’s excellent blog yesterday, detailing his very good approach to solving a cryptic crossword, I’ll just say I rushed through this, paying scant attention to the artfully … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1208 by Izetti”

Introduction And I’m back! As discussed a few weeks ago, I’m going to experiment today with a new portion of the blog, aimed at beginners, describing in detail how I approached solving this puzzle. As … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1207 by Orpheus”

A QC for the old hands to charge through and the newbies, I hope, to finish. That is if they don’t get all muddled, as I did, with 16dn which took the final minute of … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1206 by Tracy”

Still suffering from my QC withdrawal symptoms (if indeed they exist and are not simply dimwittedness symptoms – see last blog from me), although I do believe that the QCs are getting harder. Nevertheless, that … Read more “QC 1205 by Joker”