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BD Rating – Difficulty *** - Enjoyment *****
I mislaid my original copy with timing, so not sure of my difficulty rating – maybe 4 stars rather than 3 by Sunday puzzle standards. Now that I’ve re-solved the puzzle and written up the clues, well up to standard – no epic hidden word, but three all-in-ones, two old queens and lots of other entertainment.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment *****
This was a very easy puzzle for me – apart from the beginning of an indecipherable jotting for 7A, presumably interrupted by spotting the answer or deciding to move on, my copy has no writing other than the completed grid and the timing. Part of the easiness probably came from the two long answers which are old crossword favourites. The clues include some of BG’s lively twists on cryptic wordplay, and as usual they make good sense in both the cryptic and surface readings.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
No &lits/all-in-ones today, but a few clues of particular kinds that we expect from this setter.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment *****
A fairly swift report today, as I’ve just realised I need to blog today’s Times elsewhere. Big Dave and I can both make Brian’s requested gathering on 3rd October, and we’re on the case for pub selection. I found this relatively tricky overall, mainly because 5D kept me busy for a shocking 4 minutes at the end.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * - Enjoyment *****
A very easy puzzle for me this one. Big Dave discourages bragging about solving times, so I’ll just say that in minutes and seconds this was exactly as quick for me as the Times crossword of 24th August, the quickest for me in several months if not a year or more. So in the same spirit as Craig Revel Horwood of Strictly Come Dancing, who sees no point in having a board with a 1 on it if he’s never going to use it, this gets one star for difficulty. I was going to knock off an enjoyment star on the basis that nothing this easy can be worth 5, but changed my mind when I got to 3D.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment ****
A very easy one for me, partly because I saw through 1A quickly.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
A bit harder than usual for me – this one took almost exactly my average time for a Times crossword. That’s not supposed to happen when there are 3 hidden word clues, but I did start rather badly …
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment *****
A bit trickier than some Sundays. As I start to write this I’ve forgotten the puzzle experience and didn’t write anything about it on my copy – just the wordplay structures. More after I’ve written these up below (so to speak).
First thought: good solid grid – he says after only having to set up 14 numbers each for acrosses and downs. Those 14-letter answers in the middle hold it all together very well. Not much more to say after writing up the clues – “just” another easy but very classy Sunday puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
Apologies for the slow report – it’s been a busy week. This was a fairly easy puzzle, with clues of the usual high standard.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment ****
A pretty straightforward puzzle after the two thematic Sundays. Not much excitement on the face of it, but we still get very precise clues, and a little bit of novelty at 20A.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** - Enjoyment *****
This took me about twice as long as an average Sunday puzzle, despite having thematic material nearly identical to a puzzle I blogged at the beginning of the 2010 World Cup. I can’t see now why it took so long – there are plenty of anagrams that now seem rather obvious. And I have to tip my neophyte setter’s cap to the clue-writing skill here – as well as the thematic aspects discussed below, he somehow gets away with four uses of SA or South Africa, and deftly marshals the crossword clichés like SAY and ED in 28 and meanings like those of “players”, and “supporter”.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
It’s the fourth of July and the puzzle is from a setter who likes to do themes and has worked in the US for the last decade or so. So no surprise that there’s stuff about Independence Day and the USA, past and present. I guess this is a pretty wide thematic range, but I’m still impressed by the 3 very relevant 15-letter acrosses and a grid where the effect of the thematic material is small – the single extra black square in the top and bottom rows. (The 3-word columns at the edges don’t matter as there are only 29 grid entries.
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Welcome to the twenty first in our series of weekly puzzles.
This week Biddle (regular contributor Peter Biddlecombe) has provided a puzzle with a topical theme – his first for the site .
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
Back to the routine format for this report. The content of the grid is not routine – I can’t see any significant presence of those old favourite crossword grid visitors. And the clues are … you know what I’m going to say.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment *****
For clarity, it’s Peter writing this introduction. For a change this week, we’re trying to show you the solving process in action rather than an explanation of the clues written after the event. Two of us solved this puzzle while making notes about our thoughts, so that you can see two approaches to solving and the differences and similarities between our thought processes. If you’re reading this to learn something, Gnomethang’s solving experience will be more familiar, and mine may seem absurdly unlikely.
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