Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Giovanni is Don Manley, who is also known as Duck, Pasquale, Quixote, and Bradman (all punningly connected with the name Don or Donald), and is the current Friday setter
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ***
It’s been a couple of months since we last had a Toughie from Giovanni and, even if you hadn’t already known that he was today’s Toughie setter, it wouldn’t have taken you long to realise that this crossword was definitely one of his, not least because of some, fairly-clued, but not well-known, words in the mix.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ****/***** – Enjoyment ***
I found this to be a particularly tough Wednesday Toughie from Giovanni. Continue reading “Toughie 2962”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A fairly typical mid-week Toughie from Giovanni. There are quite a few anagrams to get you started and the words you may not have heard of were all fairly clued. Continue reading “Toughie 2934”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A typical Giovanni Wednesday-level Toughie Continue reading “Toughie 2906”
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
A typical Giovanni Toughie where everything, including the words you possibly didn’t know, was fairly clued Continue reading “Toughie 2882”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Giovanni for today’s pangram containing a generous 32 clues. There’s a pleasing shortage of obscurities here – although the 4d answer was new to me the wordplay was clear.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Is Giovanni mellowing (or was this puzzle originally intended for the back page)? There are quite a few gimmes here and although he includes his usual ration of religious terms there’s nothing that was new to me – that’s a first for a Giovanni Toughie.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
It wouldn’t be a Giovanni Toughie without a number of obscurities which, as usual, had me burrowing in my reference books. It’s not my preferred way of solving but Giovanni is unlikely to change his ways so we have to put up with it.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
It wouldn’t be a Giovanni Toughie without a few obscurities – I didn’t know either the sages, the poor conductor or the shrub. Thanks to Giovanni for the puzzle.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Giovanni is in benevolent mood today and although I didn’t know the 21a plant name it could be established once the checkers were in place.
Thanks to Giovanni and Season’s Greetings to him, to all other setters, to our bloggers and all who comment here.… Continue reading