Solving time : 29 minutes. I did myself in by initially getting 18 wrong (there’s a lot of 7-letter Republics that come close to fitting the wordplay). Nothing too too obscure for this puzzle, but … Read more “Times 23992 – beating the Plantagenets at the rat-race”
23991
Solving time 15:12 Made pretty good progress with most of this, but was left with about three answers or pairs of answers, with 21/30 th last to fall. With TIFFIN, Indie, BLUEBOTTLE, CARDIFF, CHELSEA, shut-eye, … Read more “23991”
ST 4288 (Sun 3 Aug) – Argy-bargy
Solving time: 9:53 Firstly, thank you very much to sotira, dorosatt, jackkt and yfyap who have blogged the Sunday Times puzzles over the last few weeks in my absence. After a largely crosswordless month I’ve … Read more “ST 4288 (Sun 3 Aug) – Argy-bargy”
Times 23,990 Le Mur du Louvre Mate
Solving time : 45 minutes I may be having an off day but I found this a difficult puzzle with a lot of intricate wordplay and a good deal of slang. It was difficult to … Read more “Times 23,990 Le Mur du Louvre Mate”
23989
Solving time: 39 minutesGot off to a flyer. Held up with the NE corner – 8,10,11,15 the last to go in – then I worked out the long one at 7. I think I’ve mentioned … Read more “23989”
Jumbo 768 – 26 July 2008
38 minutes to solve. To be honest, I solved this two weeks ago and I can’t remember whether I found it enjoyable or not. I probably did. Sorry about the lousy preamble, you can provide … Read more “Jumbo 768 – 26 July 2008”
Mephisto 2501 Tim Moorey
A very pleasant puzzle with a mixture of nice clues and good starter clues. A number of the starter clues needed a reference to Chambers to verify an easily derived word, such as EGESTA at … Read more “Mephisto 2501 Tim Moorey”
Times Saturday 23982 (Aug 2)
Solving time – not recorded but over 20 minutes. I got a bit bogged down with this one (which I only solved this morning, as I’ve been very busy at work and had a crossword-free … Read more “Times Saturday 23982 (Aug 2)”
Times Crossword 23987
Solving time: 9.38 This all seemed to fall into place fairly easily, with two of the long answers round the border going in right away (1ac and 8d) and the other two yielding without too … Read more “Times Crossword 23987”
Times 23,986
Solving time: 12:47 A fast start, then slowed up, particularly in the South West corner. This was partly because I put the wrong answer in for 25D. “Religious work the speaker does (4)” could almost … Read more “Times 23,986”