Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
So you’ve raced through today’s Cryptic in record time and you’re looking for something a bit more challenging, but you’re wary of trying the Toughie because you think it will be beyond you? Think again, today’s puzzle is a pussycat, certainly no more difficult than an average Telegraph Cryptic, and easier, in my opinion, than yesterday’s Cryptic. If you’ve never tried a Toughie this is the one to start with.
It’s a perfectly good puzzle with some well-constructed and entertaining clues, but I do feel that the Telegraph is verging on a contravention of the Trades Description Act in describing it as the toughest puzzle on Fleet Street and “our most devious cryptic puzzle ever”. Certainly some Toughies fall into that category, but this one? – no.
Whether you agree or disagree, please feel free to leave a comment.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Tilsit would rather go back to see the lovely nurses in the Calderdale Royal Hospital than do today’s puzzle, and I don’t blame him. It was very easy and the newer solvers should enjoy finishing it. For the rest of us it offered very little.
You can add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another Tuesday Toughie that’s worth having a go at. There are several anagrams, and some easy cryptic definitions and other clues to get you going. Then you can take a bit more time with some of the more difficult clues. All in all it should prove to be an enjoyable adventure. Especially if you tried to tackle last Friday’s Toughie equivalent of Everest.
If you want to leave comments, please do. You can the answers directly by highlighting the letters inside the curly brackets.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that this was a bit harder than the usual Ray T puzzle when I did it in the early hours (but that may have been due to a moderate intake of Shiraz!), so I’ve given it 4 stars for difficulty. I expect that you’ll all tell me now that it was the easiest puzzle all year!!
It has all the Ray T trademarks – single word answers and definitions where you keep having to ask yourself “in what sense does x mean y?”.
Let’s see if we can get a bumper crop of comments today. We particularly want to hear from those readers who have yet to introduce themselves – we’re a friendly bunch and we won’t bite – it really doesn’t matter whether you’ve been solving crosswords for sixty years or have only just started!
As always the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets to prevent your seeing them accidentally. Just drag your cursor through the white space inside the brackets to reveal.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I enjoyed solving this crossword from our Monday Maestro. The grid is cyclically symmetrical, that is, the pattern is the same whichever way you turn.
Clues 1a and 31a, in symmetrical positions in the grid, belong to a type known as &lit, which I think is short for ‘and literally so’ [we also use the term all-in-one for these – BD] – for definition of the word required, we have to reread the clue in its entirety. Both these clues lead to words from the world of professions – one teaching lines to children and the other making locomotives run on lines.
For me the Clue of the Crossword is 3d – all components in this charade are from roads and “by-pass” is a noun in the surface reading but a verb as definition for word required.
The last to go in was 13a – for non-UK solvers it’s always place names that are the bugbears.
As usual the solutions are whitened; please highlight the space within the curly brackets and they will show themselves.
Please do leave a Comment to record your experience with this crossword.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
With puzzles as consistently good as these it’s difficult to say something different each Sunday, so I won’t try. Just enjoy!
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 27th November.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *
Oh Dear! Just as I thought that I might be able to look forward to Saturday puzzles, along comes this one. If it wasn’t a prize puzzle then I would recommend consigning it to the recycling bin.
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 26th November.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Another dose of quality, this week with a govt/military flavour in quite a few of the long answers – Magna Carta, Victoria Cross, esprit de corps, and secret service. Overall difficulty matched an easy but not very easy Times puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ***
This was a bit of a monster, not helped by the E/E* grid and a preponderance of very common cross-checking letters; 8a was a case in point, a ten minute slog with only -A-E- available. The clues were a mix of some truly stunning bits of inventiveness and the occasional grumble, typified by the past participle “welcomed” in 9d.
*E/E means even/even – in which the answers appear in the even-numbered rows and columns.
Please add your comments and questions; and don’t forget the curly brackets contain the answers – left-click and drag the cursor over them if you get really desperate.
Clues in blue are the ones I enjoyed most of all.