Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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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, 12th March.
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Anax set out to produce a simpler puzzle. “In setting this one I gave myself the brief of keeping things as simple as possible, which is quite a departure from the typical Anax approach.” In large measure, I think he succeeds – the puzzle was a lot more straightforward than a “typical” Anax masterpiece. However, an easy Anax puzzle still leaves room for a lot of deviousness and humour.
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Welcome to the fourth in what has become an excellent series of weekly puzzles. Telegraph setters themselves have been known to dip in, perhaps to see how it really should be done!
This one dropped unexpectedly into my mailbox recently. Anax thought he would try his hand at writing an easier puzzle. Easier that what? You might well ask. Easier than his usual fare. Is it easy – that’s for you to judge.
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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 will be published on Thursday, 11th March.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
At first glance, not a very remarkable puzzle. But there are top-class surface readings throughout – a side of cryptic clues that sometimes gets ignored. Not by this setter, and after a few goes at puzzle writing myself lately, I know how difficult this is.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
The last time I reviewed an Elgar puzzle it was a “blind” solve; had no idea who had set it. This time I was forewarned so was on the lookout for his trademark trickery which, naturally, shines through in this mega-tough but highly entertaining (occasionally very naughty) puzzle. 4d, 5d and 12d are sure to raise both giggles among the knowing and temperatures among the sweet and innocent, but it’s all good fun.
It was a tricky solve in most areas, but the SE corner put up most resistance, and (as always seems to be the case with me) a number of answers went in without parsing the wordplay, so I’m hoping those pennies will drop as I write.
Favourite clues are in blue although, because there were a lot of them, I’ll try to narrow it down to my top half dozen or so.
Please do 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 ****
As I’ve said before, Fridays and Sundays are my favourite Cryptic days. Even the inconvenience of a power cut when I was trying to key my answers into Clued Up didn’t dampen my enjoyment of this one. I know that some people find Giovanni’s puzzles difficult, but it really is worth persevering.
All comments are appreciated – the bloggers do read and take note of all the comments on their reviews, even if many do not require a specific response.
As usual the answer to each clue is concealed between the curly bracket under the clue. Just drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets to reveal it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Just when you thought it was safe to sit down and enjoy a Saturday Prize puzzle, along comes another one that you can finish while your egg is still boiling. Although I have issues with a few of the clues, this is not a bad puzzle – it’s just that I was disappointed after the improvements we have seen in recent Saturdays.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment **
This took a long time to solve, but there was little pleasure to be derived from the puzzle itself or the Nina. Usually when I struggle to finish a puzzle, I get that “wow” moment with a number of the clues, but not today.
The preamble promised much but by the time I had realised what it meant all of the answers had been filled in. If you are still puzzled the double unches are sort of (but not fully) symmetrical. Around the outside you have UT then KE and finally EA.
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 **
I don’t expect much use of my hints today as this is certainly the easiest crossword of the week by far.
One of the stars for enjoyment is for 17a. One of the stars not given for enjoyment belongs to 16d.
If you disagree of agree with some of my thoughts, please leave a comment.
As usual if you wish to see the answer rather than the hint, all you have to do is highlight the space between the curly brackets.