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I think the coughing at the page turn would ruin my concentration!

:)

On the rare occasions I solve The Times online, I use the Reveal Word option when I've got the answer, rather than entering it manually, because I'm utterly rubbish at typing on a phone. You get a solving time if you tap Reveal Word for some, or even all, of the clues. I've just managed to get a time of 2:17 on an old puzzle by just going through the clues as fast as possible, without even looking at them, and tapping Reveal Word for each one. (I don't enter the leaderboard so I hope that's not going to appear anywhere!)

Magoo's 2:40 is just feasible allowing for greater finger dexterity than mine (quite likely) - he is a phenomenal solver after all. I'm not in his league but have occasionally solved the cryptic (on paper) in under 5 minutes. Anything under two minutes is, I think, impossible. In any case, I agree with those who see no point in speed solving, other than in competitions. Isn't it like treating a gourmet meal as if it were a pie eating contest?

Oh and I play a mean 4'33". Can't play anything else, though...

I always print the crossword off. When I have completed it, I fill it in online and press submit. This is a 3 to 4 minute operation. I think I'd find it hard to solve online as I like to scribble in the margins to solve anagrams and test out possible components of answers.

I do the Guardian crosswords online but keep scrap paper for scribbling next to my laptop!

Rossim - same here!

It occurred to me that some of the sub 5 minute entries will be solvers who just want to register completion rather than massage their statistics. It does rather make a nonsense of the leader board though, for those who care about such things. Perhaps the answer is to time yourself when solving on paper, then try to take the same length of the time with the transcription?

I may have broken a record for solving times at the end of the scale. Stuck away from home due to flight cancellations in the spring, I mostly solved the Times online to save my host's printer ink. I had to break off while solving one of them and forgot all about it. Some time after I found the open page on my phone and entered the final answers. I clocked in with a time of over three days!