Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Samuel is the pseudonym of Chris Lancaster. As well as editing the Enigmatic Variations puzzles in the Sunday Telegraph since 2014, he has also set crosswords in this series and The Listener series in The Times, , the Inquisitor series and for The Magpie.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
We have a fairly gentle puzzle from Samuel today which produced several smiles (e.g. the privy with no walls and the Lords spouting nonsense). I didn’t have any significant problems although I was very slow to utilise the ‘if all else fails look for a lurker’ rule in parsing 1d.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We haven’t had a Toughie from Samuel for over six months, Continue reading “Toughie 2500”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
I enjoyed this puzzle from our editor with its good dose of humour. My main difficulties came from queries of the type ‘How does that mean that?’ followed shortly by ‘Ah, that’s how!’.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Our esteemed editor has taken pity on those of us who have overindulged today and given us a very gentle festive Toughie – but as we say all the time a puzzle can be very enjoyable without being terribly difficult and this one fits the bill.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This is pretty gentle but very enjoyable with little bits of humour throughout. Lots of clues have ‘sporting’ surfaces (especially football) but sporting knowledge is not really necessary in order to solve the puzzle.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
An enjoyable puzzle with some original touches. It wasn’t particularly difficult though I had to think hard about some of the parsing. Continue reading “Toughie 2289”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that this was a pleasant but fairly straightforward puzzle which for the most part would not have been out of place on the back page. Thanks to Samuel.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
There’s nothing too tricky in this enjoyable puzzle, although I’m not sure that I’ve fully understood 3d.
Thanks to Samuel for a fun puzzle.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
There are two types of Toughie I like – ones which provide a tricky set of clues which torment the grey matter and need to be teased out and ones which contain a lot of humour and make me laugh.… Continue reading
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ***
Welcome. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Toughie from our editor, and this is a most welcome return indeed. I found it rather Toughier than I was expecting, and will be interested to see how you found it.… Continue reading