Category: Weekend Cryptic

Solving time: 20:27 – Although I would have been under 20 minutes if I hadn’t spent 30 seconds checking at the end. As my time suggests, I thought this was very straightforward by recent standards. … Read more “Sunday Times 4505 (30 Sep 2012) by Jeff Pearce”

19:37 for this one. I got off to a horribly slow start, as I just couldn’t get my mind to think cryptically at first, and every clue I looked at seemed like so much gobbledygook. … Read more “Saturday Times 25281 (29th Sept)”

Solving time: 57:46 I found this one really quite a struggle, although I was quite tired so it may well just be me. Some of the clues seemed very easy, while others seemed a lot … Read more “Sunday Times 4504 (23 Sep 2012) by Tim Moorey”

Solving time 15:28, so fairly straightforward considering it’s a pangram, as they are often quite tricky. As I had a bit of time on my hands today, I’ve decided to introduce a small innovation that … Read more “Saturday Times 25275 (22nd Sept)”

Solving time: 1:02:33 I struggled with this one. There’s a lot of very clever stuff in here, and I needed to be at my sharpest to get through it in a half-decent time, but alas … Read more “Sunday Times 4503 (16 Sep 2012) by Dean Mayer”

Solved in bits and pieces last Saturday whilst on the phone all day trying to sort out a problem at work, so I can’t even estimate a time. Nasty trap for any French-speakers at 21ac, … Read more “Saturday Times 25269 (15th Sept)”

Solving time: 25:38 – my quickest time for a Sunday since January. I found this quite easy by recent standards, but by far the most enjoyable for a while. Lots of good surfaces and some … Read more “Sunday Times 4502 (9 Sep 2012) by Jeff Pearce”

[ SAT 15th ] Slightly caught out by the sneaky bank holiday jumbo – was away when 996 came out, did it on the tuesday, but didnt make any notes, now I cant find it! … Read more “Jumbo 996 – Saturday 1st September”

Solving time, probably about an hour, but I was pretty hung-over when I attempted it the day after Dean’s party! This generated 44 comments on the Times forum, but inexplicably most of them were negative. … Read more “Saturday Times 25263 (8th Sept) – tricky but brilliant!”

Solving time: 53:41 I didn’t like this one. There were one or two clues that I liked, but they got rather lost amongst all the ones I didn’t. I won’t dwell on them here, as … Read more “Sunday Times 4501 (2 Sep 2012) by Tim Moorey”