Category: Quick Cryptic

This is my last QC blog for now because we’re about to embark on our seasonal migration to Rhinebeck NY from NYC at dawn’s crack tomorrow.  We gave up seeking internet  (and cellphone) access there … Read more “Quick Cryptic 533 by Flamande”

An interesting puzzle from Hurley with several clues where, whilst the answer went in easily enough from definition and cross checkers, the parsing was somewhat trickier (at least as far as I was concerned) – … Read more “Quick Cryptic 532 by Hurley”

The western half flew in – the eastern half was a different story. I acknowledge that I misread the clue at 4dn which didn’t help at all but I had the feeling that I was … Read more “Quick Cryptic 531 by Teazel”

I was doing very nicely with this one and on course to finish within my 10 minute target, but after 9 minutes I came to a grinding halt with 15dn unsolved and I stared at … Read more “Quick Cryptic 530 by Orpheus”

I found this one much the hardest since I’ve been blogging, though looking back, I’m not sure why! Probably having ‘towards’ instead of ‘inwards’, wasn’t a good start…A puzzle also notable for including three first … Read more “Quick Cryptic 529 by Oran”

A smoothly crafted puzzle with good surfaces.  With one possible exception it shouldn’t produce any hiccups and there are no real obscurities.  The exception is an anomaly in 21a which I don’t recall having seen … Read more “Quick Cryptic 528 by Joker. And a Happy St Patrick’s Day.”

A slightly difficult puzzle of the type we’ve come to expect (and, I hope, enjoy) from Izetti. Very precise and misleading, with one or two answers that require complete confidence in having untangled the wordplay … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 527 by Izetti”

Answers fairly flew in today – sometimes without fully checking the word play. After 7 minutes, with everything else complete, I got to 23ac and came to a grinding halt. Every other letter was filled … Read more “Quick Cryptic 526 by Tracy”

A pleasant solve from Dazzler today, with no obscurities and some nice surfaces. Unfortunately I think this setter died in December of last year so regrettably we will only have a few more of his … Read more “Quick Cryptic 525 by Dazzler”

I didn’t do this one on the timer, so couldn’t say where it fell on the difficulty spectrum for me, but a couple of clues did hold me up – 8a and 12a – and … Read more “Quick Cryptic 524 by Teazel”