Solving time: 9:21 Not a great puzzle but at least free of mistakes, as far I can see. I wasted two minutes on 20dn (GRACKLE) at the end, and also didn’t know 21dn (BORNITE). * … Read more “ST 4348 (Sun 27 Sep) – Bornite entity”
Mephisto 2561 by Tim Moorey
Back to average standard after last week’s puzzle. Old hands will have had an advantage because we know all the common abbreviations such as ‘ll=will – and there seemed to be a lot of them … Read more “Mephisto 2561 by Tim Moorey”
Saturday Times 24341 (26 Sep)
Or 23341 if you printed it off from the website last Saturday (thanks to jackkt for pointing out the error). Solving time 22:47, on the train the following Monday as I didn’t have any time … Read more “Saturday Times 24341 (26 Sep)”
Times Crossword 24346
Solving time: 28.20. I had hoped that the crossword gods would give me a break after Samuel Johnson two weeks ago, but no such luck – I found this very hard indeed. The top half … Read more “Times Crossword 24346”
Jumbo 835
Solving time: 30:35 – roughly a jumbo par, as they seem to take about three times as long as cryptics. Some very ingenious clues here, so straight on to the explanations. Across 1 B(A,R(oo)M,AN – … Read more “Jumbo 835”
Times 24,345
Solving time: 15:23 Reasonably steady solve until after 10 minutes I had only three left (4 (SUBSTANCES), 6 (THE BEAR) and 7 (COMMA)). And they took another 5 minutes. Looking at them now I can’t … Read more “Times 24,345”
Times 24344
Solving time: 8:04 Another straightforward puzzle, slowed down here by taking about four goes to see the right author at 2, dimness at 29 after an early stab at TRESTLE, and failure to see the … Read more “Times 24344”
Times 24,343 – Sheer Poetry
I found this to be a very enjoyable 14 minutes, flirting with some quite chestnutty material without being trite, and introducing me to one or two new things for future reference. The fact that I … Read more “Times 24,343 – Sheer Poetry”
Times 24342 – Greetings from the Midlands
Solving time: 50 mins This was blogged in extenuating circumstances, solved online, with a wireless internet “connection” which remained so only when not required to find a site. I’m on a short break in remote … Read more “Times 24342 – Greetings from the Midlands”
ST 4347 (Sun 20 Sep) – Déjà vu
Solving time: 4:37 When I saw the anagram at 11ac a bell rang, so I did a bit of a search to see when it last came up. It turned out to be July 2008, … Read more “ST 4347 (Sun 20 Sep) – Déjà vu”