Category: Weekend Cryptic

9:58. A pretty gentle one from Dean this week, but of the usual high quality. Nothing terribly difficult or obscure, but a couple of uncommon usages (floss, faction, cat) to keep the interest level up. … Read more “Sunday Times 4876 by Dean Mayer”

I suspect this was a hard one. It’s hard for me to be sure because I had a very full weekend, but after looking at it several times in free intervals, I only had 9ac … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27504 – Saturday 9 November 2019. The deuce of a puzzle.”

I heartily enjoyed my time with this, which time I, as always, can’t put any number on. I forget what was on my SmartTV last Saturday as I leisurely strolled through the clues, but you … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4875, 3 XI 2019, by Robert Price — Trilling info from a whistle-blower!”

If you were on song, you might have got through this quickly. For me, it was more like ‘slow but steady’. I finished confident of the answers but with lots of questions to look up. … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27498 – Saturday, 02 November 2019. Why is it so?”

19:24. A tricky and interesting puzzle from Harry this week. Most of these clues are really very straightforward, but they throw you (OK me) off track by deploying slightly off-beat or unexpected meanings of words. … Read more “Sunday Times 4874 by David McLean”

A typical Saturday I thought. I didn’t know the answer at 10ac, but I got it from the wordplay. The answer at 9dn was obvious from the crossing letters, but I still can’t altogether explain … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27492 – Saturday, 26 October 2019. Not rare, but well done.”

As my FOI was IN ONE’S RIGHT MIND, and my third, after AIDA, was the other 15-letter answer, DELIRIUM TREMENS, I was off to a flying start. Now, I really like long answers, but especially … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4873, 20 X 2019, by Dean Mayer — Make mine a double”

I printed this puzzle within minutes after it appeared online and, like others, blinked with puzzlement that there were only two clues in the down column! Some creatively filled the gap with print-and-paste, or by … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27486 – Saturday, 19 October 2019. Clueless at Crosswords.”

7:09. A pretty easy one from Bob this week, but none the worse for that. There are lots of fun and creative clues in here, starting with a neat ‘answer as clue’ number at 1ac … Read more “Sunday Times 4872 by Robert Price”

Well, that was too hard for me! Two clues had wordplay that could be used to confirm the (unknown) answer, but for me weren’t specific enough to construct it. Several other answers I biffed, and … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27480 – Saturday, 12 October 2019. By weight or by volume?”