Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Ha! By pure chance I just came across a week-old email from the Telegraph with a £50 amazon voucher for winning the Sunday Prize crossword – it was in my spam folder!… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *
Giovanni offers us a Pangram today, though the combination of unusual words and ultra-loose definitions made it hard for me to enjoy this puzzle as much as I did last Friday’s.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
At last I get to blog an Elkamere puzzle – I’ve been looking forward to this. I’ve always admired Elkamere’s knack of using hidden and misleading definitions that are nonetheless tight and accurate – so much more satisfying than loose synonyms.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
A nice and gentle offering from Warbler today, no harder than the back-pager, to start our Toughie week, although I was misled by 7d which had me concerned about my lack of Latin education – however, turns out it was my musical education that was to blame.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I was panicking that this week’s Toughie parsing nightmares would culminate in a Friday blogger’s hell, but I needn’t have worried. Today’s puzzle didn’t feel much harder than the back-pager, though it did take me a while to get 8d, my last-one-in, and now my favourite since it contains a rather beautifully constructed mislead.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
I’m covering for Toro today – as we move into the summer period there may be more of this sort of thing happening. Today’s puzzle by Shamus left me with a few to parse after completing the grid, and I had to phone a friend for one clue before everything fell into place, nudging this into 4* difficulty for me.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Congratulations Notabilis on your 100th Toughie! What an achievement! I was impressed that the previous Notabilis toughie was readily solvable with just newspaper and pen (I was sitting in a caravan with no dictionaries or WiFi).… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Happy Birthday Dad! My father Gerry is visiting me from Holland for a few weeks, and today is his 86th birthday. No doubt he is delighted that I started this special day battling with the Elgar puzzle.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I am trying something different today which I hope will make the puzzle more widely accessible. I’ve tried to add just a little more of the thinking involved during solving.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Sparks as usual gives us intricate wordplay and cleverly disguised definitions that make for some great “aha” moments. No obscurities, though there were some word uses I didn’t know.… Continue reading