Category: Weekend Cryptic

DNF. I had no idea what was going on with 17ac and without any wordplay to speak of I was never going to get it.

Apparently, when dancing a salsa, the tempo is quick quick slow, quick quick slow. This puzzle was a bit like that for me.

Did this one make me stop and think? Definitely. Yet, once solved, it’s remarkable how simple and straightforward (or at least straight-backward) the cluing is.

I was struck by how compact the clues were in this puzzle. It reminded me of the Sunday Cryptics! And, all very gettable.

14:52. Another excellent puzzle from Robert, which I found quite tricky.

The north-west corner gave the most opposition. In contrast, the other long clue at 7dn was clear from the helpers, but needed time to decipher the wordplay. I had to consult my brains trust about 24ac!

Enjoyed this a lot—several things that are right up my alley, comme on dit. And the answer that took me the most time to parse is all of three letters long. Love it when that happens!

I thought this puzzle was easy, until I went to prepare the blog and found two clues yet to do!

18:47. I found this difficult, for reasons I can’t now remember. Going back through it all to write the blog it seems mostly straightforward. This is often the mark of a good puzzle, which this … Read more “Sunday Times 5066 by David McLean”

There were several astronomical references here, which had me wondering if July 1 had some particular significance in that sphere?