Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Busman is Tom Johnson. He is also known as Doc of the Spectator, Didymus and Gozo and is co-editor of 1 Across Magazine
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment **
If you had been waiting at the bus stop for this Busman, then you would have been there since November 2013. Was it worth the wait? Only if you like your Toughies to be easier than a typical back-page puzzle.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Gazza for covering for me last week. I swear that I didn’t know it was to be an Excalibur puzzle when I declared my unavailability. I raced through today’s Busman puzzle apart from stalling briefly in the NW corner. I don’t know why I stalled because everything was fairly straightforward except for 1 across.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***
A couple of lazy anagram indicators (not and from), an obscure, for me, reference to ancient French literature and a technical flaw in 8 down, together with a grid which almost splits this into two separate puzzles, rather spoiled this otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
It’s typical, isn’t it? You wait ages for a Busman to turn up and then two come along in quick succession. This one provided the usual smooth comfortable ride with no hold-ups en route.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
It’s about 2½ years since I last blogged a Busman toughie but I could still remember that Busman toughies are normally pleasant enough to do but not overly difficult. Nothing has changed. This is the grid that is effectively four mini-puzzles connected at the centre. There’s always a danger with this grid that one of the corners might prove intractable but that didn’t happen here. I did the top two corners with ease but then had to think a little bit harder about the bottom two.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Busman’s recent puzzles have been a significant improvement on his earlier ones, and this is no exception. Perhaps a notch up from a standard back-page puzzle, but not too difficult.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This pleasant Toughie came to life, and won an extra star, when I solved 1 down.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
While not the hardest of puzzles, this is much better than the early Busman puzzles in the Toughie series and I enjoyed solving it. The handful of trickier answers are well clued.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Busman returns to the Toughie fold after a nine-month absence with an excellent puzzle. I have complained in the past about some of his puzzles being too easy, but this one hits the right level for a Tuesday puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Busman’s puzzles are firmly at the easy end of the Toughie spectrum. This one has a decent grid – Busman complained on another site about my criticism (he must read the blog!) of the grid used for his previous Toughie.