Neil Wellard’s blog for these two puzzles officially goes live tomorrow, with a team of contributors including some of us. There are test posts about recent puzzles already there and I believe most of these … Read more “Independent and Guardian crossword blog goes live”
Mephisto 2409 – Chris Feetenby (+weekend round-up)
Solving time 21:15 – Chambers used for last word (17A) As this is our first posting on Mephisto, here’s some brief information about the puzzle. Mephisto is a puzzle in the “advanced cryptic” tradition of … Read more “Mephisto 2409 – Chris Feetenby (+weekend round-up)”
Sunday Times 4196/Oct 29
Solving time: 15 minutes (Posting this all the way from America — it’s Saturday afternoon here and presumably dead of night in London). The Sunday Times puzzle gets a lot of disrespect from the cognoscenti … Read more “Sunday Times 4196/Oct 29”
23432 – tough Saturday puzzle
Solving time – 24:26 Well, I found it a bit of a hard slog anyway, although I did solve it first thing in the morning when I’m never at my best… Across 5 UPS(=hikes, as … Read more “23432 – tough Saturday puzzle”
23,437 – Aphrodisiacs, slapper and suspender all combining to make this one hard
Solving time :13m 05s I found this one very hard going. No more than two answers entered in the first two minutes, and both of those only thanks to previous experience of very similar devices. … Read more “23,437 – Aphrodisiacs, slapper and suspender all combining to make this one hard”
Indie 6255 by Monk
Solving time: 20 mins give or take A challenging puzzle but fair as I’ve come to expect from Monk. Grid is a double pangram. Continues the current “Jewish culture” trend with one answer (to go … Read more “Indie 6255 by Monk”
23,436 – A bad beginning
Solving time : 9:35… … but with one mistake (11A). Otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle. All the clues read well, and there are some really funny ones, especially 1A. Across 1 QUART(O) – because it … Read more “23,436 – A bad beginning”
23,435 – where did they go wrong?
Solving time 7:41 This is the middle one of the three puzzles from the second preliminary session of the championship. It’s fairly easy for a championship puzzle – 64% solved it within the time limit … Read more “23,435 – where did they go wrong?”
A new beginning
Welcome to “Times for the Times” – a “community” version of a blog previously kept by Peter Biddlecombe. The point of this version is just the same as before – to discuss the day’s Times … Read more “A new beginning”