Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
It’s been a funny (and enjoyable) old week for the back-page cryptic solver but we return to earth today with a fairly typical puzzle from Giovanni. Let us know how you fared.
To reveal an answer highlight the gap between the curly brackets under the clue. If you have trouble doing this on a mobile device there’s some help in the FAQ.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***
I had my suspicions that this was a Cephas puzzle, albeit a slightly trickier one than usual, when I solved it and this was confirmed by the setter himself when we met at the Convention on Saturday afternoon. Continue reading “DT 27002”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Big Dave for standing in for me again last week. I appear to have left him with a brute of a puzzle but I have to emphasise that I had no prior warning that it was going to be so difficult. However I feel certain that he would have preferred to blog that puzzle rather than this week’s Excalibur puzzle. I thought that this was a reasonable puzzle which took me an above-average time. But steady progress was made once I’d got my brain into ‘solving an Excalibur puzzle’ mode and was able to deal with the unconventional order of words used especially in container clues (or Yoda-speak as Big Dave calls it [I can’t claim the credit for that one, Tilsit was the first to use it back in July 2009. BD]).
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***– Enjoyment ****
After the extra superb puzzle of the week before, it was an ‘average’ Virgilius this week, although of course, miles better in both entertainment and difficulty than many other setters ‘average’ crosswords. My particular favourite has to be 22d, which I liked even more after I had read Big Dave’s hint. Continue reading “ST 2661”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Well, was this a recycled Toughie or what? Hardest back-pager for some time methinks. There again, it could just be me having an off day I suppose! I found it hard to solve and it didn’t get any easier when writing the hints, which was a bit of a surprise as things usually look much more simple with hindsight. Thanks to the setter for a bit of unexpected brain strain which I did enjoy a lot, once I realised I could actually solve it without screaming for help!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
We have a rare (and very welcome) appearance by Notabilis in the mid-week slot and very enjoyable it is. It’s not quite as tough as some of his Friday puzzles but not far off. I’ve looked for a Nina (having missed some from him in the past) but can’t find anything.
Do let us know how you got on and also click on one of the stars below to indicate how much you enjoyed it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **++ – Enjoyment ***
This was made a little bit more difficult by the grid which has more than the usual number of unchecked letters. So I’d give it a 2.5+ * for difficulty and a 3* for enjoyment. Thanks to setter.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
I approached this Kcit puzzle expecting it to be a doddle, but was soon brought down to earth. Not as difficult as the puzzles usually reserved for Fridays, but a worthy contender.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We have a very entertaining puzzle today with a micro-theme of female nursery rhyme characters. I really enjoyed it – how about you? Do leave a comment and let us know how you got on.
If you’re still doing the puzzle from the paper you may be confused by 5a which is an error (thanks to the ever vigilant crypticsue for the alert) – the correct clue is as shown here and on the web-site.
If you want to see an answer just drag your cursor through the gap between the brackets under the clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Not quite sure what to say about this… except that where some of the weaker clues pulled it down (e.g. 13d), 14a made up for them.