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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega on a delightful sunny morning. In my opinion Jay’s on top form this morning and I really enjoyed this puzzle. Some excellent clues but enough ‘gimmes’ to get you going. For reasons unknown I found the SW corner to be the tricky bit so I’ll be interested to see if you agree.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja and welcome to my 50th blog – not exactly Sachin Tendulkar but a half century ain’t bad!
We have a rather unusual grid today with twelve sets of ‘double unches’ but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of another excellent Wednesday puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Well, after last week’s walk in the park we have a pretty tricky puzzle from Jay this week. It was close to getting 4* but I clicked 13d just in time! I enjoyed the tussle! You don’t really need to start with the downs but it will help if you have your slightly American hat on today as several of the clues have a distinctly US flavour.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. I don’ think anyone will be needing these hints today! This is by far the gentlest of all the Jay puzzles that I’ve blogged, easily my fasted solve, but quite enjoyable for all that. For once you don’t need to start with the downs! I got all but two of the across clues on first pass, (although I did get one wrong, d’oh!). Maybe I was just on good form and you’ll all disagree. It will be interesting to hear your views.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Mar Menor this week. I’m not at home today so I had to solve this online, so maybe that’s why I slipped into 3* time. In general it’s not that hard but there are a couple of tricky ones that had me scratching the head for a while. Hope you all remembered to start with the downs! Maybe it’s just me but it didn’t strike me as one of Jay’s most entertaining puzzles, or perhaps it’s because I had to do it outside on a rather chilly balcony as the dongle doesn’t work inside the apartment!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. Today we have the usual fine stuff from Jay but I’m not sure how to rate it for difficulty. I solved it well within 2* time so that’s what I’ve gone for but while writing the review I started to think that there’s some tricky stuff in here so 3* may be more realistic. Please tell me know what you think!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where the weather has been great for the last few days – nearly as warm as the UK!
Today we have the usual great stuff from the Wednesday Wizard and with the added bonus that it’s a pangram. I think this is the first one Jay’s produced since I started doing the Wednesday blog – unless there’s been one I missed or have forgotten about! It didn’t help me much as I’d got all the obscure letters before twigging. It’s mostly straightforward with a few anagrams spread around the grid to get you going but there’s also a few I think will cause a bit of head-scratching.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. No, it’s not Wednesday! Gazza thought I might be suffering withdrawal symptoms after I missed Wednesday because of the rain so kindly offered to let me tackle this one instead – many thanks Gazza. It’s the second Giovanni I’ve blogged and both times I’ve found it an interesting experience to get to grips with a different style from my normal Jay puzzle.
I thought this was piitched about right for a Friday with a couple of gimmes and a few anagram,s to give you a start, and a few that require a bit of thought.
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. This was the usual entertaining stuff from Jay but one of my quickest solves ever, I don’t think many people are going to need the hints today! It would have been a straight 1* had it not been for two clues where I made problems for myself. There are no obscure words and five anagrams to give you a start if you like that sort of thing, which I know many of you do.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. Well I can’t believe it but this week it’s a year since my “Baptism of Fire” as a blogger – 2 March 2011! Where has the time gone? I’ve really enjoyed doing all the reviews and I thank you all for the nice comments that you’ve made. I hope you’ve found my efforts useful.
Over the year Jay has consistently supplied us with excellent puzzles and this one is no exception. The only problem is that sometimes they’re a bit thin on photo opportunities – not this time though!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Another enjoyable offering from Jay which raised a few smiles and had a few d’oh moments as well. If I’ve counted right there are 4 anagrams and 2 partial anagrams so that should keep some of you happy! Also the usual quota of ‘take the first and/or last letter’ type of clue.
Unfortunately no opportunities for pictures of scantily clad ladies!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. This puzzle will be a lot easier if you can solve 10a quickly as 5 of the other across clues refer to it. I found it a little tricky as I’m not familiar with a couple of the types of 10a but I got there in the end. Some of you will probably think it a doddle! It only just got into the 3* time for me so if I knew a bit more about 10a probably only 2*.
It’s also the first time I’ve had to blog a puzzle where so many clues refer to another. It’s not easy to hint those that refer to 10a without giving 10a away. Hope I’ve done it OK. I’ve been blogging Jay’s puzzles for the best part of a year now and he’s never done one with so many linked clues in all that time so the thought’s crossed my mind that this may not be one of his, perhaps he’ll pop in and let us know.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Another treat from Jay which I found both tricky and amusing in places. A 2* solving time (but very close to 3*) but the variation in difficulty between the clues is quite large, similar to last week’s puzzle.
There seem to be quite a lot of “take the first and/or last letter” type of clues this week but no substitution clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. This is a great puzzle today but it’s Jay at his trickiest for quite some time I reckon. There’s a bit of a theme in here based on today but I didn’t notice it for ages – stupid or what? I struggled for a bit but I got there when I twigged what day it is (those north of Hadrian’s Wall will probably think it’s obvious and give it only 2*). I’ve had to go for 3* because of my time but maybe it’s doing it in the middle of the night and not being Scottish that’s caused me the trouble.
I found it very enjoyable and with a good mixture of clues ranging from a couple of simple ‘gimmes’ to a couple of Toughie standard D’oh’s when the pennies finally drop. My opinion is that this is Jay at his very best – what do you think of it?
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Maybe it’s just me but I thought this was a fair bit trickier than recent Wednesday puzzles and I found the right hand side a lot harder than the left! Some excellent clues, as usual, but there are a couple that I think don’t quite work. It will be interesting to hear what others think.
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