What's the proper way to show time in a sentence?

'they didn't arrive at 9 o'clock and they didn't arrive at 10 o'clock. When they didn't arrive at 11 o'clock...'

Sounds a bit much.

'they didn't arrive at 9 and they didn't arrive at 10...'

Doesn't look right

and

'they didn't arrive at nine and they didn't arrive at ten...'

looks even worse.

Does anyone know which is the correct way to write it?

Thanks
Nikki

Nikki, is this a line from something you’ve written? My first impression is that it’s the repetition which is making it look wrong, not the way you’ve written the time. If it were me, I'd go for something like:

'they didn't arrive at 9 o'clock and they still weren’t there by ten. Eleven o'clock came and went…’

Dee

Yep. Taht sounds pretty perfect to me, Dee.

<Added>

'That', I mean

Yes, it's something I've written - and your version sounds much better!

I take it, from what you've written, that's it's okay to refer to time both with and without the o'clock, ie 9 o'clock or ten.

Nikki