Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
A beautiful sunny day in Macclesfield. The puppies have shredded some paperwork; optimistically, I shrug it off as unimportant. Not sure why my wife bought a shredder. Sparks gives us a lovely pangram today, which helped me with 5d.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs where, for a change, we have a sunny start to the day.
Apart from the minor technical glitch which affected 9d when I first solved the puzzle on the website just after it had been published last night, this was a reasonably straightforward Giovanni, with the usual inclusion of some GK and the odd unusual word, but entirely secular, so that delicate souls like Brian won’t be ‘offended’ by references to religion.… Continue reading
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This puzzle was published on 24th November 2018
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
This extremely gentle Saturday Prize Puzzle marks the very accomplished debut DT crossword of a new young lady setter – which has to be a good thing for Crosswordland as we need more female setters.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I had to check the term for the police in 8 down but otherwise it was all plain sailing
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where winter has set in early — although we have been granted a brief reprieve with temperatures hovering around the freezing point.
Today’s puzzle is from RayT and it contains most — if not all — of his signature clues.… Continue reading
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This puzzle was published on 18th November 2018
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
The first paragraph below is an edited version of my comment made on publication day
I tried very hard before I started solving to forget that it was Sunday, and that we had a different setter.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Today we have a pangram from Giovanni that’s not too tricky and doesn’t have too many religious obscurities.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of it.… Continue reading
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Kia ora from Aotearoa.
We’re back to our full team again this week.
Rather unsettled weather recently. A series of active frontal systems have been moving across the country giving variable and changeable conditions. Pretty typical for this time of the year.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
A big warm fluffy welcome to you all. Today’s puzzle in the Toughie slot is one of those I’m happy to recommend to back page solvers. A couple of unfamiliar words for me didn’t slow down the gridfill or dent the enjoyment.
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
Hello, everyone, and welcome. Usually a puzzle containing eight anagrams would sit at the less-difficult end of the back-page spectrum. I did not find that to be the case today. Some very well-disguised wordplay in the other clues delivered a succession of penny-drop moments and left me feeling grateful that those anagrams provided footholds on which to build the grid fill. I'd be happy to see more puzzles like this. I do hope that today's setter will post a comment so we know who to thank for this fine piece of entertainment.