Category: Weekend Cryptic

16:56. I did most of this pretty quickly and had all but two clues solved in under ten minutes, but then I hit a total roadblock on 10ac and 2dn and wasted the rest of … Read more “Sunday Times 4846 by Dean Mayer – time torn off unused”

Well, nothing easy about this one, although it is all solvable. Certainly there was no biffing for me – each clue required work to unravel. I only got two answers on my first pass, and … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27324 – Saturday, 13 April 2019. Heads down, tails up.”

Well, that went down easily, a very smooth blend with some vivid, if uncomplex, notes, which left me with a warm feeling inside. I am just back from the fantastic Guggenheim show of the heretofore-unsung … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4845, 7 April 2019, by Robert Price — Pour me another one!”

All done on the morning of, so not outrageously hard. Still, harder than the week before. Fortunately, I had the luxury of doing it on paper, not on a phone, and so, again fortunately, don’t … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27318 – Saturday, 06 April. What’s a Grecian Urn?”

11:36. Fairly straightforward from Harry this week. Only one unfamiliar term, mostly straightforward wordplay and definitions. A tidy set of clues though, with some nice surface readings. Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (THIS)*, anagram … Read more “Sunday Times 4844 by David McLean”

So April has arrived: Whan that Aprill with his shoures sooteThe droghte of March hath perced to the roote. and with it a major announcement from one of our distinguished bloggers. I read it on … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27312 – Saturday, 30 March 2019. Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote ….”

This seemed harder than any Dean Mayer I’d heretofore had the honor of blogging. But maybe I was just a bit trepidatious after the previous week’s debut performance of our new Sunday blogger (with whose … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4843, 24 March 2019, by Dean Mayer — Is it just me?”

I solved this in quickstep tempo: slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. (Pause for vinyl1 to put on appropriate mood music.) I finished the SE corner after some time and then worked up and left until … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27306 – Saturday, 23 March 2019. In the mood.”

24:48. This is the first puzzle from the new setter replacing Jeff Pearce. His name is Bob Price, and as we heard from Peter Biddlecombe last week (see comments here) he is a regular winner … Read more “Sunday Times 4842 by Robert Price”

Joy and bliss for me – another Saturday that I could finish without tearing of hair or beating of breast, without spending too much time in a state of 15ac. The NE corner was the … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27300 – Saturday, 16 March 2019. Let bliss and joy abound.”