Category: Weekend Cryptic

I found this one highly enjoyable but quite tough. A pleasingly eclectic cast of characters are on display – Bowie, Dryden and a zombie with nasty habits are all presented for our delectation and delight … Read more “Sunday Times 4681 by David McLean”

15:40 for this one, which I didn’t get around to until yesterday morning. Biffing in UNDERCOAT early on for 2dn didn’t help much, but it fit three of the crossing letters so I didn’t give … Read more “Saturday Times 26334 – 13th Feb”

33m. Unusually for a Dean Mayer puzzle I didn’t enjoy this one much at the time: I found it hard, and a bit of a slog. Looking at it now it doesn’t seem that difficult, … Read more “Sunday Times 4680 by Dean Mayer – awe and loathing”

Tough puzzle, lots of GK required. Finished everything apart from 1ac and 2dn in about 15 mins, but then my mind had a temporary seizure and I couldn’t think of either of them. In the … Read more “Saturday Times 26328 (6th Feb)”

Apologies for the lateness – I had internet trouble yesterday. Solving time 20:12, struggled to get going at first as I was a bit bleary-eyed from the night before. Bit of a mixed bag with … Read more “Saturday Times 26322 (30th Jan)”

A solid sort of puzzle this week – no pyrotechnics but pleasant enough. 7d was unknown to me, but fortunately the wordplay was generous and we were given 60% of the cross checkers. Thanks to … Read more “Sunday Times 4679 by Jeff Pearce”

24:12. The second outing for our new setter, and I for one found it a stiff challenge. I had a sense of engaging with a new and unfamiliar setting mind, and struggling to find the … Read more “Sunday Times 4678 by David McLean – do you think you can tell?”

Solved in exactly 10 minutes to the second,and on paper, so definitely an easy one. A lot of the wordplay was quite intricate, but it seemed to me that the definitions were often very specific, … Read more “Saturday Times 26316 (23rd Jan)”

A tough one as far as I was concerned, but most enjoyable. Some great stuff (11ac, 2dn and 4dn all excellent, I thought). An error in 21dn but the required answer was clear enough once … Read more “Sunday Times 4677 by Dean Mayer”

14:10 for this one, but I made the mistake of solving it before my morning coffee, so I started off very sluggishly! I’d guess at 10 mins for the first half, 4 for the second. … Read more “Saturday Times 26310 (16th Jan)”