Firefly – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 3035

Toughie No 3035 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Twmbarlwm

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BD Rating – Difficulty ****  –  Enjoyment ****

Good afternoon. I’m in Gazza’s Thursday chair for one week only, and what a superb puzzle this was for my first Toughie blog: beautifully composed with a wide variety of devices and deceptions, and some clever thematic clues relating to the opening solution. The difficulty rating might be a little lower for anyone who got the gateway solution quicker than I did!
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Toughie 3015

Toughie No 3015 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Thanks to Firefly for an enjoyable puzzle with a theme. Thanks largely to the education offered by crosswords in the past I did know all the theme elements.Continue reading

Toughie 2987

Toughie No 2987 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/****Enjoyment ***

I spent longer sorting out the wordplay than I did solving this Firefly puzzle. I do enjoy disentangling complicated wordplay but I was still rather glad when I got to the end of the hints.Continue reading

Toughie 2963

Toughie No 2963 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Thanks to Firefly for brightening up a horribly dark squally day in North Devon. He has given us an enjoyable puzzle with an ursine theme.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.… Continue reading

Toughie 2939

Toughie No 2939 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/****Enjoyment ***

I found parts of this quite tricky (which I can’t blame entirely on the severe case of man flu that I’m currently suffering from) and I can’t fully understand 21a (so any suggestions there would be welcome).Continue reading

Toughie 2907

Toughie No 2907 by Firefly

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **/***Enjoyment ***

Thanks to Firefly for a pleasant Thursday Toughie. There are two words that I didn’t know which made me add an extra half-star for difficulty.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.… Continue reading

Toughie 2843

Toughie No 2843 by Firefly

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Firefly has given us a theme today – I counted ten eleven (Thanks to Jonners for correcting my counting) answers fitting the theme. Thanks to Firefly.… Continue reading

Toughie 2807

Toughie No 2807 by Firefly

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Thanks to Firefly for an enjoyable puzzle.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.

Across Clues

1a Sweet spoils hero may initially grant (11)
MARSHMALLOW: string together a verb meaning spoils, the initial letters of Hero May and a verb to grant.
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Toughie 2779

Toughie No 2779 by Firefly

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Stephen L is lucky to have some sun in South Devon because here in the North of the County it’s a horribly wet, cold day.

It’s Firefly on duty today (thanks to him) and he’s given us a reasonably gentle puzzle including a fairly high anagram count.… Continue reading