Category: Weekend Cryptic

I find that quite a few of Jeff’s puzzles share the same overall characteristics – a significant number of nicely constructed but eminently gettable clues, laced with two or three where the answer is something … Read more “Sunday Times 4691 by Jeff Pearce”

11:25 for this one, solved online on the Sunday morning as I didn’t get a chance to do anything crossword-related last Saturday. This seemed to have a lot of GK in it – nearly half … Read more “Saturday Times 26394 (23rd April)”

I’m filling in for Andy as per his request below. I found this one pretty straightforward for a Saturday and completed it in 36 minutes. [I tried posting this several times on Saturday evening but … Read more “Times Saturday 26388 April 16”

21:49. I felt I was making heavy weather of this, but I found it very enjoyable. Writing up the blog afterwards I couldn’t for the life of me see what I had found so hard, … Read more “Sunday Times 4690 by David McLean – all in the game, yo, all in the game”

Found this one particularly tricky, even by Dean’s standards – but very rewarding as I slowly worked my way through it. Solved in bits and pieces in sub-optimal circumstances – flying to San Francisco sitting … Read more “Sunday Times 4689 by Dean Mayer”

Solving time 11:25 online, which looks like a really good time going through the stats and seeing who took longer (after the usual six pages of neutrinos)! There was some discussion on whether 23D had … Read more “Saturday Times 26382 (9th April)”

26:52. Another fine effort from Jeff Pearce, and one that gave me a good deal of trouble. Most of it went in reasonably smoothly, but then I found myself badly stuck in the south-east corner … Read more “Sunday Times 4688 by Jeff Pearce – a sting ray in the tail”

13:44 for this, which seemed about average until I looked at the stats on the Crossword Club and found that there were no genuine times under 10 minutes. Now having blogged it, I still can’t … Read more “Saturday Times 26376 (2nd April)”

A most enjoyable romp with an intriguing mix of some unusually (for “Harry”) straightforward stuff – 1d, 18d and 7d come to mind – and some tricky ones such as 5d, 15d and the excellent … Read more “Sunday Times 4687 by David McLean – Off With His Head!”

No time for this, solved in the paper for a change over a leisurely pint. Probably no more than 15 minutes though, as it wasn’t too difficult. Very enjoyable solve though (apart from 3dn). Across … Read more “Saturday Times 26370 (26 March)”