Category: Weekend Cryptic

Welcome to the new home of Times for the Times. It’s great to have this brilliant new site up and running, and an honour to be one of the first to post.

I’d never heard of the political arrangement at 12D, so no music played for me … tho’ I’m sure it was different for some. Anyhow, the answer was clear from the helpers. Nor was my geography up to naming the answer to 2D – that one I had to look up. Everything else was within my ken. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. How did you all get on?

Great fun, as always, from Bob. Some very tricky stuff, I thought, but no perplexity remaining in the end.

A regulation Saturday challenge, done in perhaps slightly under regulation time. 11D stretched my knowledge of Covent Garden – do they sell roses there? 14A amused me, and 15D stretched my vocabulary. Thanks to the … Read more “Times Cryptic No 28278 – Saturday, 30 April 2022. Who will buy my bright red roses?”

12:26. Another excellent puzzle. There were one or two in this one that I found a bit odd, but if that’s the price for Dean’s extraordinary creativity it’s one I’m happy to pay. What a great setter he is.

A fun exercise. Not too hard and not obscure, with two answers I didn’t know but could work out. 24A raised a smile. The parsing of 2D puzzled me but no doubt I’ll sort it … Read more “Times Cryptic No 28272 – Saturday, 23 April 2022. Right as a 6D.”

Wow, I was really on the wavelength for this one!—hence the French expression in my headline, which originated in the vocabulary for radio transmissions: « Employé…pour indiquer le niveau de compréhension des messages transmis, sur … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 5003, by David McLean — Reçu cinq sur cinq !”

This was a straightforward solve, with a few obscurities that we’ve seen before. The top right held my last few in, shortly after I cracked 8D. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. … Read more “Times Cryptic No 28266 – Saturday, 16 April 2022. Known unknowns?”

12:30. A fairly gentle puzzle from Bob this week, with several very simply-constructed clues and no difficult words other than 27ac, which is very clearly indicated. Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, anagram indicators … Read more “Sunday Times 5002 by Robert Price”

This was easy bar the last few in the north-east. I knew I’d seen the answer to 10A before, but even after I got that, it took ages to see the wordplay … a delightful … Read more “Times Cryptic No 28260 – Saturday, 11 April 2022. Show me the shape of your money!”