Solving time: about 1 hour 20 minutes Enjoyable enough – decent wordplay (difficult in places) but quite a few smiles to be had. Apologies for today’s brevity (and lack of my usual hypertextuality) – a … Read more “23,510 – and all that jazz?”
Times Saturday 23503
Solving time 18:38 A few foreign towns in this, but strangely enough 22ac and 16ac were the first clues I got. No one corner slowed me down, but did struggle with the last 3 or … Read more “Times Saturday 23503”
Sunday Times 4208 – Y, oh, why?
This was a lot harder for a Sunday puzzle compared to those I’ve seen since I started writing these notes. Not sure whether the clues overall were just more challenging or because a couple of … Read more “Sunday Times 4208 – Y, oh, why?”
Mephisto 2421 – Chris Feetenby
Good mix of clues, clean surfaces, slightly easier than I might have expected, what more can I say? Solving time – 20-25 minutes ACROSS 5 A-BR(E)ACT – the “modified” in the clue had me of … Read more “Mephisto 2421 – Chris Feetenby”
23,508 – Stupider and stupider
Solving time : 9m04s – Feels like a fairly feeble time for a puzzle that didn’t in retrospect have anything monstrous (except perhaps GILLRAY, which was well-checked and well-clued), but I really got a bit … Read more “23,508 – Stupider and stupider”
23507 – parse mildly livid
Solving time : 15:24 A very enjoyable crossword. Clever surfaces (eg 1A, 1D, 14) and mainly economic cluing – by my counting only ten of the clues have linkwords. I don’t object to linkwords, but … Read more “23507 – parse mildly livid”
23,506 – A mistake made stupIDLY
Solving time 7:45, but one wrong answer. Calming down from my irritation with myself, there’s some good stuff here, with interesting steps like “unfortunate lot of chickens” => FOWL PEST. Beginner’s notebook entries: O.R. = … Read more “23,506 – A mistake made stupIDLY”
Jumbo 678/Jan 6 – Black and white
Solving time: 17:01 I think my best time for the Jumbo is somewhere in the region 15-17 mins, so this was a pretty quick one. Enough slowness on my part that I’m a bit disappointed … Read more “Jumbo 678/Jan 6 – Black and white”
23,505 – Corridor of uncertainty
Solving time: 23’40” (last 14 mins on 1ac and 2dn) I didn’t solve the first few clues I looked at, but after that seemed to get on pretty well with what felt a trickyish puzzle. … Read more “23,505 – Corridor of uncertainty”
23,504 – An enjoyable caper
Solving time : 41 minutesA pretty quick time for me today – a mix of standard wordplay that I am quite used to now, and some good surface readings that weren’t too confusing. I particularly … Read more “23,504 – An enjoyable caper”