Category: Jumbo Cryptic

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was rather more straightforward than average, with no unknowns and only one spelling issue (at 34dn). Certainly a great deal easier than the beast that was 1548, the last one I blogged. There seemed to be a lot of girls (Ena,  Esther, Lucy, Susie) and quite a lot of extremely long single words clued with anagrams. What did you think?

Hello everyone.  I left this until the eleventh hour – almost literally – so have been somewhat briefer than usual.  This would mean I have a proper time for a change, but unfortunately I managed … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1545 – 12 March 2022. A doceant solve”

Looking at the leaderboard for this I see Magoo did it in 12.13, Jason in 12.25, your correspondent in 12.34, Mistigris in 13.15… a gallop down a completely straight track to a photo finish, but … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1544: A Day At The Races”

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was a little harder than average, with four nhos and a loose-ish definition or two. What did you think? Please, do feel free to ask questions or comment as … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1543 – 26 February 2022”

I rather enjoyed this Jumbo which has a certain amount of quirkiness and whimsy enlivening the wordplay and definitions, with some taking me a while to work out…. and the style makes me think I … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1542 – 19th February”

One for wordplay fans this with only one CD and nary a DD, unless I’ve miscounted.  There’s some neat stuff too.  Not too easy, not too hard. First in was SAFFRON WALDEN and last was … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1541 – Was he only a drunken f**t on his birthday, and can he do the fandango?”

Hi everyone. This was a DNF for me, due to needing electronic help in the vicinity of sockdologer, and I was hardly speedy up until then.  I don’t think I can entirely put that down … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1540 – 05 February 2022. Call me Klaas”

I thought this a very superior specimen of the Jumbonic art, lots of really good lift-and-separates and surfaces with the definition part well and misleadingly concealed within. The first row went pretty much straight in … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1539: The Crossword Your Crossword Could Smell Like”

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was medium hard, with a fair number of straightforward clues and a few stinkers thrown in. To me it seemed to have an unusually high level of obscurities for … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1538 – 22 January 2022”

As I solved this the Saturday before last and remembered to use my solution as the framework for the blog I thought, “but it’s only a week since I published my last Jumbo blog”. Well … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1537 – 15th January”