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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Myops makes his first appearance of 2013 with this excellent Toughie. As a Sassenach, some of the wordplay took a bit of working out, but I think I got there in the end.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Bufo is taking a day off, leaving me to review this superb puzzle from Myops, one of my favourite setters. Some easier clues are intermingled with the more complex constructions, giving a way into the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Tilsit is away this weekend on a jolly. As many of you know, Myops is one of my favourite Toughie setters, so I looked forward to this puzzle with eager anticipation. And what a joy it turned out to be.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Tilsit’s continuing sojourn in rainy Scotland gave us the chance to blog this excellent Toughie. A very nice mix of clues, including a couple of easily-gettable Scottish references as one might expect from one of Antony’s favourite setters.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Tilsit is still in hospital waiting patiently for his operation so he has handed the baton to me.
It’s always a pleasure to review a Myops Toughie as you get the chance to enjoy it twice over. The blue highlighter is out in force today!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that this was a fairly tough tussle for a Wednesday but it was one that I enjoyed battling through, although a few of the clues do seem a bit “clunky”. There’s a theme running through the puzzle relating to a nursery rhyme dealing with the dangers involved in trying to circumvent the hosepipe ban.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from the Calder Valley. Sorry for the lateness today, I’ve been at the hospital and only just got home. We have Myops today with a puzzle that wasn’t as ferocious as his last one, but still a stern test, especially if like me you didn’t have access to a dictionary to check one or two things. Lots of anagrams (including compound ones) and clever cryptic definitions feature today. Have to admit I still struggle to get on his wavelength and this probably affects my enjoyment of the puzzle.
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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 ****
I felt as if I’d been mugged when I finished this extra-Toughie from Myops. I wasn’t helped by the Telegraph Puzzles site giving the setter as MynoT – I spent a while looking for a D in every answer! The puzzle certainly grew on me as I worked on the review. There are still one or two that I’m not completely sure about.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Tilsit is unavailable today, so I’m filling in. Once again he has missed reviewing a superb puzzle. Myops is a retired Classics master (at a school in Glasgow) and his background shows through into his puzzles.
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