I forgot to note down my solving time for this, but I seem to remember it was about 16 minutes-ish. Quite good for me considering the sometimes tortuous wordplay! Doing the blog at the unholy … Read more “Times Saturday 23779 (Dec 08)”
Times Jumbo 729
Solving time: 27:22 This was a quick time for me for a Jumbo. Fairly straightforward puzzle with a some pretty good clues and very little to complain about. Across 1 TAPSTER (Plonk in TASTER??) – I presume this … Read more “Times Jumbo 729”
23,784 – Authors aplenty
Not too difficult for this book lover, with a string of mainly two word clues, including ‘author’. Solving time: 25 mins * = anagram < = reversed Across 5 HO (RN) P I PE Very … Read more “23,784 – Authors aplenty”
Times 23783 – I’ve got the subtraction blues
Solving time : 39 minutes, and the last 10 of that poring through dictionaries to find the mysterious last few words. There was a lot here that was new to me, usually literature and art … Read more “Times 23783 – I’ve got the subtraction blues”
23,782 – a drinker’s puzzle?
Solving time 7:05 Good initial progress, then slowed down for my last three answers – 19, 11 and 8 in that order. COD is 24D unless someone is certain that it’s been used before. Various … Read more “23,782 – a drinker’s puzzle?”
Times 23781 – Pat and Patel
A tale of two halves. Below the belt was pretty easy but the top half was quite a struggle — the NW corner had two or three intersecting obscurities (PIBROCH, PASTEL, ELIOT). And as is … Read more “Times 23781 – Pat and Patel”
23,780 – easy
Solving time: 17:21 I have been away for the past five weeks and only found the time to do one Times and two Independent crosswords during that time. I was therefore getting ready to make … Read more “23,780 – easy”
ST 4253 – easy enough, but …
Solving time: 7 minutes This puzzle was pretty straightforward, considering that I don’t usually do the ST, but had some of those little faults that often make it an unsatisfying puzzle for me. Across 1 … Read more “ST 4253 – easy enough, but …”
Times Saturday 23773 (Dec 1)
Solving time 15:14 There were a few difficult words in here but nothing that couldn’t be figured out from the wordplay, and I enjoyed the challenge. Across 1 OVERSEAS – “overseize”. It is noised??? What … Read more “Times Saturday 23773 (Dec 1)”
Times Jumbo 728 (24 Nov)
Solving time approx. 45 mins spread over several sessions. I found it hard to get into this one at first, and kept getting distracted (mainly by other puzzles – all the weekend advanced cryptics, then … Read more “Times Jumbo 728 (24 Nov)”