Category: Weekend Cryptic

I forgot to make a note of my solving time last week, but I know it would have been sub-10 minutes but for a daft mistake at 5d which stopped me getting 5a for a … Read more “Times Saturday 23462 – easiest Saturday for a while?”

The SE corner held me up: took me as long to solve as the all the rest of the puzzle: total 1/2h. All in all, not as easy as last week’s and slowed down my … Read more “Sunday Times 4200/hang on – not so fast”

Solving time 15:34 I was going to mention the interesting puzzle number with consecutive digits, and that the next time this happens will be some time in 2042, but Pete beat me to it last … Read more “Saturday Times 23456”

I think I actually did this in under 10 minutes which is by far a record for me. Either it was unusually easy or my neurons were all firing laterally. Or both. I think experience … Read more “Sunday Times 4199/fastest ever”

No typos – something always worth mentioning in the context of The Sunday Times. Pretty straightforward – only one unrecognized word (7D). Some of clichéd Usual Suspects (Essen cropped up again, L for student, N … Read more “Sunday Times/4198 – no typos!”

What was I going to say about this puzzle? No idea, forgotten already – I had to re-solve it this morning to remind myself. In future I’ll make notes on the Saturday I do it … Read more “Saturday Times 23444”

Solving time: 23’ Not very hard – but I was making tea and answering email while solving the puzzle. Got my first copy of Chambers yesterday – which really does make a difference. I found … Read more “4917: easy even for a Sunday”

Solving time 9:50 – which I thought was pretty good until I saw Peter’s time of 4:02… ACROSS 4 S(NOB)BISH – Bish was a new word for me, meaning a mistake (or faux pas) 11 … Read more “23438 – nice ‘n’ easy for a Saturday”

Solving time: 15 minutes (Posting this all the way from America — it’s Saturday afternoon here and presumably dead of night in London). The Sunday Times puzzle gets a lot of disrespect from the cognoscenti … Read more “Sunday Times 4196/Oct 29”

Solving time – 24:26 Well, I found it a bit of a hard slog anyway, although I did solve it first thing in the morning when I’m never at my best… Across 5 UPS(=hikes, as … Read more “23432 – tough Saturday puzzle”