Category: Quick Cryptic

A very enjoyable puzzle with a good mix of politics, art, music, science, sport, geography and entertainment.  I’d thought there was no literature until I remembered that the prime minister in 6d also wrote quite … Read more “Quick Cryptic 523 by Orpheus”

This one had a bit of a different feel to it. A quick initial glance through the clues revealed no less than seven ending with a question mark, suggesting that this one was going to … Read more “Quick Cryptic 522 by Rongo”

One too many gods (or one O too few) combined with a crossing COD plus a quick chemistry lesson made this trickier than it might have been and I came in at 15 minutes. Well, … Read more “Quick Crytpic 521 by Mara”

7 minutes for this one which I would rate at the easier end of the spectrum but my judgement has been proved wrong  so often that we’ll have to see what others made of it. … Read more “Quick Cryptic 520 by Flamande”

This one took me a little longer than my average, as testified by the new timer facility. I got held up in the SE, not being able to think of anything better than ‘better’ for … Read more “Quick Crossword 519 by Joker”

As it happens I drew Hurley as the setter last week too.  This is a well composed puzzle with some good surfaces and concise clueing.  Nothing tricky or unfair.  I recycled the Whister’s Mother userpic … Read more “Quick Cryptic 518 by Hurley”

Continuing the run of not-too-tricky quickies today, my only real hold up was 1ac (causing a bit of a groan when the penny dropped). Plenty of clearly signposted anagrams, nice surface readings, etc. Thanks setter. … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 517 by Felix”

On the easy-ish side today in around 10 minutes. The ‘ish’ is thanks to the SE corner which held me up for a while. Good fun as there are lots of clues where word play … Read more “Quick Cryptic 516 by Hawthorn”

A happy birthday to all you leaplings. A generally straightforward puzzle from Pedro today with just a couple of clues (e.g. 1A, 8A) requiring a bit of head-scratching/eye-narrowing/lip-pursing. The crossword can be found here if … Read more “Quick Cryptic 515 by Pedro”

This seemed fairly straightforward – once I got going – and I enjoyed the amusing word breaks in 17a and 23a. A hint for new solvers – look out for words which look like linking … Read more “Quick Cryptic 514 by Flamande”