Category: Weekend Cryptic

I put in about half of the answers, starting with the extremely easy FLEET, in a desultory manner while watching the last half-hour of a too-long and somewhat preposterous movie (which had a nice twist … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic No. 4811, by Jeff Pearce — talking Turkey”

Many will have encountered difficulties with the club site this weekend, so online times may be uncertain. I solved on paper in 33 minutes, so comparable to last week’s, although it felt if anything a … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27114 – Saturday, 11 August 2018. Please take a ticket and wait.”

14:10. Nothing too difficult this week, and fair number of very easy clues (13ac, for instance, or 24dn). However there are also a few slightly trickier ones that slowed me down at least, including an … Read more “Sunday Times 4810 by David McLean – intensive purposes”

Finished in 32 minutes, so I would rate it easier than average. Very nicely clued but all within my ken. My clue of the day was 25ac with the clever wordplay. Also, a call-out to … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27108 – Saturday, 04 August 2018. Hurricanes hardly happen!”

A few weeks ago, French citoyen Christophe Février acquired, for €8,000, a mid-nineteenth-century edition (for which Lady Gaga had once made a bid) of Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin’s humane invention. For a month or so now there has … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4809, by Dean Mayer — I’m Telling You”

After the struggles of the preceding Thursday and Friday’s puzzles, this Saturday puzzle was a return to what we expect. It wasn’t easy, but had nothing to frighten the horses, or indeed to unseat the … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27102 – Saturday, 28 July 2018. Normal service will now resume.”

15:21. A bit of an odd puzzle, this. Most of it is extremely easy: for me there were several clues that were immediate write-ins based on either obvious definitions or very standard wordplay. However I … Read more “Sunday Times 4808 by Jeff Pearce”

After suggestions during the previous week that week-day puzzles were tending to become easier, this number has certainly proved that Saturdays don’t have that problem, for me at least! Perhaps an early sign of the … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27096 – Saturday, 21 July 2018. Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.”

Shall we count the UKisms? The idiom that answers 2 down (my FOI), as well as MCC in the clue; the two “T”s in ACTUATE (which are why this was my LOI); BISH for “mistake”; … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4807, by David McLean—Idiomatic for the People”

Like last week, this was a slow solve. Again around 50 minutes for me. This one had rather more obscurities, but everything was gettable on a pleasant Saturday. (For vinyl1’s benefit, I’ve recently seen Beautiful, … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27090 – Saturday, 14 July 2018. Another Pleasant Valley Saturday.”