Category: Weekend Cryptic

I enjoyed this a lot. FOI was DESPOIL, then FAIR-AND-SQUARE, and then, from only the Q and the definition, I got SESQUIPEDALIAN, and was well on my way. The only frustrating LOGJAM occurred with my … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4821, by Dean Mayer — Any eyebrows raised?”

This had some relatively obscure vocabulary, but happily the wordplay generally told us how to spell the answers. So, no complaints on that score here. Now that the clocks have changed, I normally do the … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27174 – Saturday, 20 October 2018. A whale of a puzzle.”

9:28. A very straightforward puzzle from Jeff this week, so much so that I felt I ought to have done it a bit quicker. A few of these held me up briefly but there were … Read more “Sunday Times 4820 by Jeff Pearce”

This puzzle had some very original wordplay, like 13ac and 1dn. 1dn was my clue of the day. It was all so smooth, I don’t have much else to say here. Thanks to the setter … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27168 – Saturday, 13 October 2018. Cue the cunning clues.”

It was pleasant looking back over this puzzle, which I recall as a(n) 13ing outing, after a week. In the first edition of this blog, I thought that the one clue where I detected a … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4819, by David McLean — Comma chameleon”

This was a struggle. Particularly horrible were the clues with obscure answers which one couldn’t construct with certainty from the wordplay. Yes, I’m looking at you, Carne Ebbas Giant (sic) and Fianne Fáil (sic). Those … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27162 – Saturday, 06 October 2018. Parish pumps primed?”

15:24. I didn’t find this too difficult for a Dean Mayer puzzle, which judging by comments on the blogs last weekend is unusual. When this happens, I generally have absolutely no idea why: it’s just … Read more “Sunday Times 4818 by Dean Mayer”

Based on comments in last week’s blog, I clearly underestimated the difficulty of that puzzle. Undeterred, I’m going to call this week’s “easy for a Saturday”! I was finished in about 25 minutes. How did … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27156 – Saturday, 29 September 2018. Blowing in the wind.”

Pretty easy, this one. I filled in most of the acrosses, in order, in record time, and most of the rest came fairly quickly. Four anagrams, and three in a row! I even biffed a … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4817, by Jeff Pearce — Like a result in the night”

I rated this a middle of the road Saturday puzzle. Several clues referred to things I didn’t know, but not vital to finding the answer. My clue of the day was 11ac. I found it … Read more “Saturday, 22 September 2018 – Times Cryptic No 27150. Pack round, people.”