Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I was wondering what theme MynoT was going to use next, and early clues led me to think it might be astronomy. It turned out to be something totally different!
Please 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 used to know where I was on Tuesdays; we had puzzles from Shamus and Ray T on alternate weeks. Then last week the schedule went berserk – not only did we have Ray T two weeks in a row, but his trademark (exclusively single-word answers) was jettisoned. So I approached this morning’s puzzle with some trepidation as to who the setter would be. Well, I’m pretty sure that it’s not by Ray T and I do think that it’s from Shamus (not least because of 5a). It only remains now for me to be proved totally wrong by a comment from the real setter!
As always we’d love to get your comments on the puzzle, the review, the weather, anything, and please don’t forget to click on one of the stars below to register how much you enjoyed it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A very gentle start to the week. I don’t expect many of you to make use of the blog today!
If you really cannot work out the answer form the hint, highlight the space between the curly brackets.
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published on Friday, 3rd September.
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This was an excellent puzzle from Radler with lots to get your teeth into and savour. It felt a lot like a Guardian crossword and was definitely in the Toughie spectrum. My favourite clues are shown below in blue.
There is a theme to this puzzle, alluded to by the title. Although the preamble says that finding the theme will assist with the nine themed clues, in practice, I think its is essential to find the theme to assist with solving the crossword as the definitions for some of the themed clues are very wide and would not lead you to the answers without the theme to guide you. The theme is that of royal houses.
I did have a few niggles with some of the clues. I have tried to indicate these fairly and they did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the puzzle.
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Welcome to the twenty ninth in our series of weekly puzzles.
This week we have another puzzle from Radler. There is an underlying theme, and working that out will help with the puzzle but is not essential.
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
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.
A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 2nd September.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Fitting in the answers was a struggle for many of the clues. Explaining the wordplay is even harder. Myops is one of a handful of setters worthy of the Friday Toughie slot (along with Elgar, Notabilis, Osmosis and Micawber).
Please 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 *****
A very easy puzzle for me this one. Big Dave discourages bragging about solving times, so I’ll just say that in minutes and seconds this was exactly as quick for me as the Times crossword of 24th August, the quickest for me in several months if not a year or more. So in the same spirit as Craig Revel Horwood of Strictly Come Dancing, who sees no point in having a board with a 1 on it if he’s never going to use it, this gets one star for difficulty. I was going to knock off an enjoyment star on the basis that nothing this easy can be worth 5, but changed my mind when I got to 3D.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We have a typical Giovanni puzzle today, good clueing, a few smiles and several religious references. There’s one clue (22d) where I’m not at all sure of how it works, so any assistance on that one would be gratefully received. Whether you have any ideas on that one or not, we’d like to hear your views in a comment.
To reveal an answer just drag your cursor through the space between the brackets under the relevant clue.