Category: Weekend Cryptic

Solving time 16:33 Solved out of the paper for a change, while sitting in a pub over a pint of real ale and using my mobile phone as a stopwatch. I’ll have to do that … Read more “Times Saturday 23731”

Solving time 22:29 At least 5 minutes of which was spent on 12ac at the end. Looking through it again now, I can’t remember anything else holding me up much. I see they’re not publishing … Read more “Times Saturday 23725 (Oct 6) – delayed”

No report until next week, as due to the postal strike the Times have extended the deadline. I expect the same thing will happen next week too, the way things are going.

Solving time 17:16 I thought I’d made hard work of this until I read that Pete Biddlecombe took an hour and talbinho a whole day! Shame this wasn’t one of the Championship puzzles in Cheltenham! … Read more “Times Saturday 23719 (Sep 29)”

Solving time 13:54 Apologies for leaving this a whole week, but last Saturday’s 12-hour shift turned into a whole week’s worth, and I was just too tired. Still, I keep saying to myself, think of … Read more “Times Saturday 23713 (22 Sep)”

Solving time 16:36, which felt slow for a pretty straightforward puzzle. I can’t remember what slowed me up now – probably just my brain not firing on all cylinders on a Saturday morning. Across 4 … Read more “Times Saturday 23707 (15 Sept)”

Solving time 24:07 When I was solving this puzzle a week last Saturday, I realised it was quite tricky so made some notes on it afterwards to make writing the blog much easier this week! … Read more “Times Saturday 23701 – found it!”

Solving time: about 9 mins This is another puzzle I had to re-solve after losing last week’s copy – hence the approximate time. There are old-fashioned aspects of the ST puzzle that take a bit … Read more “Sunday Times 4240 – STill the same”

Solving time 13:48 No real problems with this fairly straightforward puzzle, just slow thinking on my part giving me a below-par (or should that be above-par?) time. Even so, that’s still much better than average … Read more “Times Saturday 23695 (Sep 1)”

Solving time 35:03 A couple of early mistakes made this one harder for me than it should have been, although I think it was pretty tough anyway. Several clues had very complicated wordplay. By comparison, … Read more “Times Saturday 23689 (Aug 25)”