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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
If you’ve read the blog in the last week or so you can’t have failed to notice the celebrations around the eightieth birthday of our regular back-page setter, Rufus. Well today is the actual day and Elkamere has produced a superb tribute packed with references to his life and many accomplishments.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I was supposed to send this puzzle to Falcon so that he could write the review, but I had an early night instead! There’s a hint of Lent about the puzzle – possibly more so than I have identified.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *
No comment from me, but please feel free to leave your own comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
The Tuesday puzzle is always an adventure – there seem to be at least three (possibly more) regular setters so I’m never sure what I’m going to get to blog. I thought that this was a mixture with some amusing clues but with a couple of dodgy surfaces. Let us in on your thoughts.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
“Happy Eightieth to Roger Squires” was the round-about nina in NTSPP 106, and the event was well and truly, if a few days prematurely, celebrated in the Shropshire village of Ironbridge on Saturday. Rufus’s sleight of hand with a deck of cards is reflected in the wordplay demonstrated in today’s puzzle, and clearly he has lost none of his wit and dexterity, for this is a reprint of his very first DT cryptic puzzle that first appeared on November 28, 1986.
Has it stood the test of time? Please share your views, but join me in wishing the sly old fox all the best for Feb 22nd, and heartfelt thanks for the untold hours of entertainment that he has provided.
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the more difficult clues and provide hints for them.
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This week’s NTSPP was a special one – some of our favourite setters, and a couple new to the NTSPP series, collaborated as ‘Omnia’ to mark the 80th birthday of Rufus (Roger Squires). I found it a reasonably straightforward solve, with a couple of headscratchers just to make you think, and had fun trying to work out who set which clue (see the end of the post for the answer).
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Welcome to the latest in our series of puzzles, which have now been running every week for over two years.
By the time that you read this I will be at a party for a very special person. If you want to know who and why then you will have to solve this excellent puzzle, which is a joint effort from a number of people: A Clue A Day, Alchemi, Anax, Arachne, Bufo, Elgar, Gazza, Hieroglyph, Prolixic, Qix, Radler and last, but not least, Tilsit who has put the whole project together. A special welcome to A Clue A Day and Arachne as this is their first appearance in this series of puzzles.
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided for them.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *****2 – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from the Calder Valley! Time to renew acquaintance with our Scottish setter Myops. Today is not so much a Wee Stinker (his other regular crossword) as a *&*&^^^%! Stinker, in fact probably the Toughest of the Toughie puzzles series. This was a ferocious beast that took an awful long time to crack and I suspect this is not going to please most solvers. There are some cracking clues, but the use of a great many obscure words with obscure definitions add to the solver’s woe. Normally when I have been wrestling with Elgar or Osmosis, I have a feeling of satisfaction but that didn’t seem there today. Thanks to Crypticsue for a couple of pointers as well.
Subscribers to Another Newspaper’s Crossword Website are treated to a monthly prize puzzle which is at this end of the scale with obscure words. This puzzle would have sat nicely in that series.
Can I put in an early recommendation for tomorrow’s NTSPP puzzle by Omnia (Who? All will be revealed!) Without giving the game away, it’s something a little special.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Afternoon All! This week saw a slightly gentler puzzle that was no less enjoyable and very well crafted as we have come to expect from Virgilius.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Last week I gave the Giovanni two stars for difficulty and provoked a lot of disagreement. Undeterred, I’m awarding this one the same – do you agree this week? It’s got some very good clues and I enjoyed it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Before I started to solve this Prize Puzzle, I couldn’t remember if it was the turn of Cephas or the Mysteron – a count of the anagrams soon convinced me that it was definitely a Cephas puzzle, as usual an enjoyable Saturday morning interlude.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I thought this was another pleasant puzzle of genuine Toughie standard. I did struggle on the bottom half because the long answer wasn’t obvious and I decided to wait until I had a fair number of intersecting letters before attempting to solve the anagram.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Yet another excellent puzzle from Ray T – keep ‘em coming! I thought this was a tad easier than usual, but feel free to disagree.
 | Kath on DT 26795 |
 | droolie on Toughie 723 |
 | jaehancock on DT 26795 |
 | andy on DT 26795 |
| andy on Toughie 724 |
 | gnomethang on DT 26795 |
| gnomethang on Toughie 724 |
 | Anax on Toughie 724 |
 | TimCypher on DT 26795 |
 | collywobbles on DT 26795 |
| Kath on Toughie 724 |
 | mary on DT 26795 |
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