Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This may not have been the most difficult Toughie, but it was very enjoyable. A well written crossword with a number of amusing clues and answers…
Comments appreciated.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We have another interesting Tuesday puzzle from the setter who likes single-word answers. There’s something of a bird theme in today’s down clues, including one that I’d never heard of.
As usual, the answers, if you want to see them, are hidden inside the curly brackets – just highlight the white space between the brackets to reveal them.
Your comments, as always, are very welcome.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The usuall gentle start to the week, ideal for those who are cryptic novices but still enjoyable for the more experienced solvers.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
These Sunday puzzles just keep getting better. This one is somewhere between a standard daily puzzle and a Toughie in terms of difficulty.
Don’t forget that you can 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.
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 Friday, 18th September.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment: ****
I actually enjoyed this one! The best Saturday prize puzzle in a while just about creeps into 3-star difficulty. The only proper noun is a Biblical character who is considerately clued as an anagram.
Don’t forget that you can 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.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 17th September.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
As expected, this puzzle was a bit out of the ordinary. At least in the online version, it was accompanied by a warning message attached to the first across and down clues: “WARNING: Two answers in this special 2500th puzzle require numbers as well as letters. The figure zero must be entered as a capital O.” This spoiled any possible surprise but I guess it was necessary for clarity when completing entries online.
Our Sunday setter specialises in thematic puzzles when writing as Virgilius or Brendan, so it’s no surprise that the thematic element here is handled elegantly – each of the Across rows in the grid has one word in the theme, which is clarified by the clue for 28A.
The thematic stuff led to some strange words elsewhere but solvers seem to have found even the one that’s not a proper English word – or so some of us thought – see below.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I struggled more than I usually do with a Firefly puzzle despite getting the 4d/16a/18a combination, that is the key to several other clues, very early on. Very enjoyable stuff, with only a few “easy” clues.
Feel free to add your comments.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Back in the Friday slot, because Gazza is taking a day off and what do we have? Not an overly difficult puzzle today, but a little tricky in places. But otherwise perfectly enjoyable entertainment.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment: **
Tilsit has been unable to do this review, but will be in this slot next week.
Just a few weaker clues in this prize puzzle, but it wouldn’t be Saturday without a boy or a girl – this week it’s a girl!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A lovely Toughie today, worthy of the title and set by one of my favourite setters Messinae. A nice feeling came over me when I entered the last answer, and I was able to look back on a good fight with the compiler.
As usual, feel free to add your comments afterwards, and don’t forget to add a star rating as well.
Couple of grumbles with the website clues in the Java version. No link between 1a and 10a at 1 across and an apostrophe missed off 8 down, which made the clue look wrong.
Off we go!