Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Quite an enjoyable start to the week with some very good cryptic definitions, which are the hallmarks of the Monday Maestro. However, there are a couple of not-so-good ones, which is a shame, otherwise this would have been a real quality puzzle.
As usual, your comments are appreciated.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Some time during today the view count on the blog will almost certainly reach 250,000 – all achieved in a day or two under 6 months. I’d like to thank all of you for your support over those 6 months and hope you will stay on for the next 6 months and beyond.
Many of you will be pleased to know that this puzzle is not as difficult as the one from a week ago.
Yesterday and today I am trying an experiment with a new WordPress feature. At the bottom of the post you will see an array of five stars – use these to give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between. Please remember you are assessing the puzzle and not my attempt to explain it! If enough of you use this feature then it will be retained for future puzzles, so it’s up to you – vote now.
At the moment the rating system can’t be turned on post by post, which means you can rate any previous puzzle. While you are welcome to do that (and some already have) it would seem unlikely that the numbers entered will be sufficient for a realistic rating.
For the weekend prize crosswords I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full analysis of this puzzle will be available at 12.00 next Friday, 31st July.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment: ***
As with most Suturday puzzles, this one is quite easy.
For the next two days I am trying an experiment with a new WordPress feature. At the bottom of the post you will see an array of five stars – use these to give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between. Please remember you are assessing the puzzle and not my attempt to explain it! If enough of you use this feature then it will be retained for future puzzles, so it’s up to you – vote now.
At the moment the rating system can’t be turned on post by post, which means you can rate any previous puzzle. While you are welcome to do that (and some already have) it would seem unlikely that the numbers entered will be sufficient for a realistic rating.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 30th July.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
This Sunday puzzle is approaching the standard set by some Toughies. It make take a little while, but it is well worth the effort.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I found this puzzle to get better as I spent time on the analysis. The surface reading is excellent, but full resolution of the wordplay was a bit tricky. This is the first Toughie from Myops since the landmark Toughie 100. Those of you in Glasgow may be interested to know this setter is responsible for the fiendishly difficult Wee Stinker (or so I have been reliably informed).
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Today’s seemed much harder than usual, for some reason I got stuck in the top right hand corner for what seemed like ages. A Composer, artist and public school also help to confuse the issue. But once again we have a nicely crafted crossword that is enjoyable to do and gives satisfaction on completion.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
More difficult than usual – I certainly struggled with 21A, as the S_R_T_ER with possible choices for the blanks takes up quite a bit of the print-out’s white space. A slightly unsatisfactory grid – answers like 1 and 10 are underchecked, but ones like 12, 15 and 17 are overchecked.
And now for something completely different – a bit of shameless advertising: Next Thursday, I’m cycling 60 miles along the Grand Union and Regents Canal towpaths in aid of Helen and Douglas House, a home providing respite and end of life care for children and young adults with life-shortening conditions, as well as support and friendship for their families.
If you would like to sponsor me for the ride (or read more), please visit http://www.justgiving.com/peters-canal-ride/
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Unless you know different, as a woman with big teeth used to say on TV, today’s Toughie breaks new ground. I don’t think that crosswords in the DT have had more than one or two cross-referencing clues. Today’s had quite a few and that added to the fun. Obviously you had to solve these to proceed further with other clues.
This was a Toughie to savour and it had everything including some absolutely top-drawer clues. My only tiny grumble was that where answers were linked – like 22, 10 and 23, 2 down, in other publications the complete indications are shown at the first answer. It just confused me a little.
Where to start? Probably with the three letter answers. They are quite good ways to get into the puzzles with quite friendly clues.
What did you think about it? Feel free to comment after the analysis.
The clue answers are contained within the curly brackets. Highlighting the space between them will reveal the answer. If you are posting a comment for the first time, there may be a slight delay while your first post is approved. This is purely a precaution against the board being hijacked by spammers.
On with the motley and let’s go!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We come down to earth after yesterday’s classic, but this is still a good puzzle with some very entertaining clues.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space to reveal them. And, as always, we’d love to hear your views on the puzzle – just leave a comment.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
If ferreting out obscure words is your bag then you’ll be in your element with this one! It is certainly a challenge, and I had particular difficulties in the top left-hand corner, with Chambers in overdrive.
As always the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space to reveal them. Do leave a comment to let us know what you thought of it!