Minute cryptic

I got into all this just from the videos before he made before the "game". Its definitely the best way to learn. But to be fair i dont find him annoying

He’s less annoying than the coffee guy.

Even par today. Enjoyed that one

No worries. Probably helped my relationship as I stopped staring at my phone on a Saturday...

Another brilliant learning resource is the Cracking the Crypting YouTube channel.

They mainly do Sudoku variant content but have a cryptic masterclass every Friday.

Absolute gold mine.

Bosh. Today was good.

1 under today

Par, I just couldn't get it nailed without a clue.

Was on the right track but missed an obvious indicator.

-2 today, back down to -11 for the tournament

Started looking at these again coz the old man's over and loves a cryptic crossword.

Got today's on the first guess after writing some ideas down and then coming back to it and then it was clear what the answer was.

The crossword in the Metro I can get a few solves on but the Guardian cryptic - wtf is that about?

Stumped, came back a couple hours later and got it straight away 2 under.

Did not like that one at all.

Especially annoying as I had just completed a whole Everyman crossword, for probably the first time ...

2 under today. A stab in the dark based on one word.

i also took a stab based on a definition. i cna see how it works but wish i`d thought it through before hitting check word

2 over this morning. Didn't like this one at all.

I loved it, just the right level of complexity and two pretty obvious word play indicators

Obvious for some.

Got the first step of the solve, but couldn't work out what all the word play shit was supposed to be doing, got fed up after a couple of minutes and went looking for the solve. I think these are better attempted before lunch.

Did not like.

Guardian Quick cryptic is just about manageable.

The explanations on https://www.fifteensquared.net/ are helpful too (someone mentioned this up thread)

I never buy the paper, my old man did and of course now I can't find the particular issue that I wanted to look at. Something about light maybe. Anyway, thanks I'll send it over to him.
Maybe I'll keep doing these, since the only way to know all the tricks seems to be to fail to get them and look up the solves.

1 under on today's

1 under too. Wasn't immediately apparent to me and had to think a bit, but got there in the end.

Yesterday’s took me on and off 10 hours, today’s was 10 seconds

Quite easy but also quite satisfying

easy to guess, but then the alternative clue was quite easy too!