Solving time: 25’ Any time under half an hour is rather quick for me, though there are a couple of wordplays that I’ll leave for my betters to gloss. Words almost all longish (except for … Read more “Times 23583/Pussy Galore!”
Times Jumbo 691 – Asian elephant
Solving time 20:18 I hadn’t noticed, when calling a previous Jumbo post “African Elephant”, that the other kind appears at 30D in this puzzle. A few tricky corners here – my copy has some crossing … Read more “Times Jumbo 691 – Asian elephant”
Mephisto 2433 – Chris Feetenby
Solving time: 27 mins without Chambers, but one mistake (20A) At least on the Times club site, this puzzle was spoiled by the truncation of four clues. Here they are in full, as the site … Read more “Mephisto 2433 – Chris Feetenby”
23,582 – Puzzle protocol? Snap out of it
Solving time : just under 40 minutes. I had a really slow start, only getting a few clues on first read-through. Then I seemed to fall into crossword mode and whizzed through the rest. I … Read more “23,582 – Puzzle protocol? Snap out of it”
Times Saturday 23575 – better late than never!
Solving time 13:32 Sorry for the lateness of this posting – I was away for the weekend at very short notice, although I should at least have put up a placeholder message. Not too hard, … Read more “Times Saturday 23575 – better late than never!”
ST 4220 (Sun Apr 15) – “Neil suffers setback with one missing, a Red River” (4)
Solving time: 7:57, one missing (27dn). Mostly straightforward wordplay, but there were quite a few words (or alternative meanings of words) here which are rarely seen outside barred puzzles: ‘neat’ (cattle), ‘euro’ (a kangaroo) and … Read more “ST 4220 (Sun Apr 15) – “Neil suffers setback with one missing, a Red River” (4)”
Take your time, David!!
A generally fair crossword with some misleading clues that made me think for a bit, and a couple of times put in wrong answers because I hadn’t read the clue properly. Some of the definitions … Read more “Take your time, David!!”
23,579 – Roedean forever?
Solving time : 5m01s – Seemed an easy puzzle, though with some surprising words. The finish of 20 and 24 are such to suggest that 28 FOREVER is placed deliberately for some secret Nina purpose … Read more “23,579 – Roedean forever?”
Championship qualifier 2
Solving time 8:31 I made heavy weather of some parts of this, having to write out letters for the anagram at 10A. But there are other answers like OBLATE, ACCIDIE and INDRA where I may … Read more “Championship qualifier 2”
23,578 – shades of the cricket…
… only scoring a RUN on the very last clue (24D). Some good stuff in here, including some “essence of Times xwd”. Solving time 6:42 Across 1 THROUGH=via,comPUTing 10 BAN,JAX=”jacks” – with JERKIN as the … Read more “23,578 – shades of the cricket…”