Category: Weekend Cryptic

Solving time 12:15 Quite a lot of Brit references in this one that may have had overseas solvers scratching their heads, e.g. ISA, TA, D = old money, “Smoke’s part”. Across 4 BI(PART,ISA)N – ISA … Read more “Saturday Times 23791 (Dec 22)”

I forgot to note down my solving time for this, but I seem to remember it was about 16 minutes-ish. Quite good for me considering the sometimes tortuous wordplay! Doing the blog at the unholy … Read more “Times Saturday 23779 (Dec 08)”

Solving time: 7 minutes This puzzle was pretty straightforward, considering that I don’t usually do the ST, but had some of those little faults that often make it an unsatisfying puzzle for me. Across 1 … Read more “ST 4253 – easy enough, but …”

Solving time 15:14 There were a few difficult words in here but nothing that couldn’t be figured out from the wordplay, and I enjoyed the challenge. Across 1 OVERSEAS – “overseize”. It is noised??? What … Read more “Times Saturday 23773 (Dec 1)”

Looking at the puzzle again this morning I see I forgot to note down my time. Quite annoying really, as I remember it was quite a quick solve, around the 10-minute mark. I got the … Read more “Times Saturday 23767 (Nov 24)”

Solving time 10:37 A bit easier than the normal Saturday fare, I was helped by getting all four 14-letter answers straight away, which gave the first letters of 12 other clues. I was prevented from … Read more “Saturday Times 23761 (Nov 17)”

Solving time 17:44 This was a marvellous puzzle – a few tricky words but nothing really obscure considering that it was a double pangram. 12dn gave a strong hint to the theme, although I didn’t … Read more “Times Saturday 23755 – Alphabet Soup indeed!”

Solving time 17:48 I found this quite difficult at first and it took me a while to get going – after 10 minutes I only had maybe half a dozen answers in, but eventually the … Read more “Times Saturday 23749 (Nov 3)”

Solving time 15:10 This was about average difficulty for a Saturday, but really fun to solve. Clue of the Day has to go to 5dn, as an alternative answer jumps out at you and you … Read more “Times Saturday 23743 (Oct 27)”

Solving time 31:03 My slowest time for about two months – I ascribe it to the fact that I solved this with a thumping hangover. There’s not too much really tricky here, although some of … Read more “Times Saturday 23737 (Oct 20)”