Category: Weekend Cryptic

Solving time 13:47, fairly straightforward for a Saturday (unlike this week’s, which put up a hell of a fight). Nice to see my old friend Isaac Asimov put in an appearance – I read all … Read more “Saturday Times 24472 (Feb 27)”

Solving time, about 45 minutes in the end over two sessions. This was a seriously tough puzzle for me, and after about 25 minutes I was left with four or five clues that I couldn’t … Read more “Saturday Times 24466 (Feb 20) – tough but fair”

Solving time – not noted, but I don’t think it was over 20 minutes. One phrase I’d never heard of was PUKKA SAHIB for an Indian gentleman, but I knew what both words meant and … Read more “Saturday Times 24460 (13th Feb)”

Solving time 16:33. The bottom left was troublesome, with two guessed answers confirmed later (26 & 29), but luckily all the crossing downs were easy. Apart from that it was a fairly straightforward solve. Across … Read more “Saturday Times 24454 (Feb 6th)”

Solving time – a dozy 35:30, on the train last Monday morning. I knew I was still half asleep and would have been better off leaving it till the journey home, but I persevered and … Read more “Saturday Times 24448 (Jan 30th)”

Solving time 21:02, slowed down a bit by a couple of silly mistakes. Otherwise another fairly straightforward one for a Saturday, although there were a couple of obscure words and a literary reference that might … Read more “Saturday Times 24442 (Jan 23rd)”

Solving time 13:46, pretty average puzzle really – not too hard, not too easy, but some interesting wordplay elements nevertheless. Across 1 OVERRIDING – OVER (finished) + RIDING (up). Unusually, a 2-word cryptic indication followed … Read more “Saturday Times 24436 (Jan 16th)”

Solving time 12:19, so a few seconds slower than the previous week for a puzzle everybody else thought was a doddle. Oh well. Surprising, as there was quite a lot of literature in this puzzle, … Read more “Saturday Times 24430 (9th Jan)”

Solving time 12:03 – fairly gentle first Saturday puzzle of the new year, without any obscure vocabulary and a couple of easy 14-letter answers to get off to a flying start. Across 1 FIASCO – … Read more “Saturday Times 24424 (Jan 2nd)”

Quite tricky I thought – solving time 28:15, although I think the main reason for slowness was the fact that I didn’t get the 14-letter answers very quickly. Anyway, I can’t do the blog today … Read more “Saturday Times 24418 (26th Dec)”