Category: Weekend Cryptic

Solving time: 27:55 A bit of light relief after last week’s marathon. But then, I usually find Jeff Pearce’s contributions more to my personal taste. Again we see that the ST has no qualms about … Read more “Sunday Times 4451 (18 Sep 2011)”

Solving time 51:34, but although tricky in places I don’t think it was all *that* hard! I decided to solve it on the train on the way home on Monday, but unfortunately ended up next … Read more “Saturday Times 24957 (17th Sept)”

Solving time: About two and a half hours over as many days. A huge struggle this week. For quite a while I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish it at all. … Read more “Sunday Times 4450 (11 Sep 2011)”

Solving time 14:27. Pretty good puzzle made all the better for the inclusion of 7D, which harks back to L. May’s winning entry in the Dec. 1973 Azed competition – Bust down reason? (9) for … Read more “Saturday Times 24951 (9th Sept)”

Solving time: 52:23 A little on the tricky side, I thought, but a lot of really rather neat clues. 6a, 19 & 22 were all good, and 21 raised a smile, but 27 was the … Read more “Sunday Times 4449 (4 Sep 2011)”

Solving time 14:31, solved as a warm-up before tackling Anax’s brilliant Sunday Times debut, which took nearly twice as long. Not that there was much wrong with this one – I thought 5D was particularly … Read more “Saturday Times 24945 (3rd Sept)”

Solving time: 32:45 – pushed over the half-hour by 8d. There were a few new words for me – OVENBIRD, RANCHI, TURKISTAN, WHEELER (as a horse) and POISE (as a unit), but all were deducible … Read more “Sunday Times 4448 (28 Aug 2011)”

A dozy 25 minutes or so on a far too early train Monday morning, about 5 minutes of which I’d actually nodded off! Some vocab difficulties – I vaguely remembered 6D from somewhere, but 28A … Read more “Saturday Times 24939 (27th August)”

Solving time: Just over an hour. Apologies for the late blog. I meant to post it earlier but it slipped my mind. I found this a bit of a struggle. There’s still a few elements … Read more “Sunday Times 4447 (21 Aug 2011)”

Solving time 31:05, so I found it quite tricky. Some very tortuous wordplay in places, and there were a couple which I only worked out while writing up the blog, having failed to unpick them … Read more “Saturday Times 24933 (20th August)”