Just a quick report on what I consider to be the more difficult clues. I didn’t make a note of my time for this, but my average for Jumbos is around 30-40 minutes. Across 13 … Read more “Times Jumbo 724 (27 Oct)”
Advertisement: a How to Solve course
On 19th January 2008, I’m repeating the “How to solve cryptic crosswords” course I held in January this year. The next version should be better than the last, partly because people won’t just have me … Read more “Advertisement: a How to Solve course”
Unofficial Times cryptic RTC No. 17 – your times please
This is a weekly unofficial contest based on your times for the Times cryptic crossword from Saturday to Friday. I’ll (again!) endeavour to get the results out more promptly than last time. Championship puzzles and … Read more “Unofficial Times cryptic RTC No. 17 – your times please”
23754 – More of a jive than a pavan for me…
Back on form this morning, completing this puzzle in less than seven minutes. Things just seemed to click into place, and guesses turned out to be good ones. ACROSS 1 TATE(r) 3 BOOK CRITIC – … Read more “23754 – More of a jive than a pavan for me…”
23,753 – better than never
Solving time: 16:06 I don’t know whether to blame my cold for my slow time, or to accept that it was a difficult puzzle for me. I found lots of the clues quite hard to … Read more “23,753 – better than never”
23,752 – Championship Prelim 2, Puzzle 1
Solving time: say 13 minutes I have 11:20 written next to this puzzle but had probably heard one or two answers being talked about. On the other hand, the prize was in the bag so … Read more “23,752 – Championship Prelim 2, Puzzle 1”
Times 23751 – two women
Accessing the online version was somewhat technically challenging but the puzzle itself was pretty reasonable — everything fell into place after about 20′ — though the NE corner was the last to succumb. One new … Read more “Times 23751 – two women”
Times 23,750 (Mon 05 11 07)
I found this a little hard to get started, but, once I did, found it not too difficult a puzzle. Solving time: 21 mins (fast for me) * = anagram < = reversedACROSS1 D (ALES … Read more “Times 23,750 (Mon 05 11 07)”
ST 4248 (Sun 28 Oct) – Malorodous
Solving time: 18:45 The bottom right corner here took me as long as the rest of the puzzle. I’m afraid I thought lots of clues in this were very poor. * = anagram. Across 9 … Read more “ST 4248 (Sun 28 Oct) – Malorodous”
Jumbo 723 (Sat 20 Oct) – Return of the Space Capsule
Solving time: About 50 mins in two sessions; four missing (asterisked below). I found this very tough, mostly because I didn’t know some of the harder words / phrases; anyone who did would probably say … Read more “Jumbo 723 (Sat 20 Oct) – Return of the Space Capsule”