Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Thanks to the devious duo of Tilsit and Prolixic for some excellent entertainment over the weekend. I thought that this puzzle was middle-Toughie standard in terms of difficulty and it had a number of very fine clues and one outstanding one (1a).
There are a few clues where I’m not 100% sure of the explanation so any corrections or additions would be welcome.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I enjoyed this Kcit puzzle. It wasn’t too difficult, it contained nothing too obscure, and I couldn’t find anything to complain about.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another nice Saturday offering from Cephas. I did enjoy the solving experience as there was a nice variety of clues, some quite simple (too simple for some, apparently) and others to make you think, including the fairly unpopular 14a.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Not much to say about today’s puzzle. With one or two exceptions you look at a clue, insert the answer and move on to the next one. I did, however, smile when I solved 26 across.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I don’t think that this is substantially different, in terms of difficulty, from some of Giovanni’s normal cryptic puzzles on Fridays. There are a couple of uncommon words (or rather, uncommon meanings of common words), but nothing that’s not gettable from the wordplay. Do you agree or not? Let me know in a comment.
Please remember to click on one of the stars below to show how much you enjoyed the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Welcome to the Wednesday blog. Before getting down to business, let me give you a brief background about myself. I am a retired engineer living in Ottawa, Canada as well as a relative newcomer to cryptic crosswords, having taken up the pastime (to which I quickly became addicted) only a couple of years ago, following my retirement. However, I do have a fairly solid foundation, having been a longtime solver of regular crossword puzzles. Furthermore, my training has been greatly accelerated by closely following a number of British cryptic crossword sites, in particular, this one.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Messinae tends to produce puzzles at the easy end of the Toughie spectrum, and this one is no exception. It is, however, very enjoyable to solve.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We have a pleasant puzzle today (presumably from Shamus) which is like Baby Bear’s bed (not too hard and not too soft). It’s also a pangram, i.e. it contains at least one instance of each letter of the alphabet (and BD tells me that the Quickie is also a pangram). Let us know what you thought of it in a comment.
The answers are concealed between the brackets under the clues to prevent your seeing them accidentally. Just highlight the space between the brackets if you want to reveal one.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
An enjoyable solve, but not overly complicated. Although some of you may disagree.
If you are unable to derive the answer from the hint, just highlight the space between the curly brackets.
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Regular followers of the blog may have seen a comment from Brian Greer, the setter of the Sunday Telegraph Crossword, for a meet while he was in London. This has now been arranged for 2.00pm on Sunday, 3rd October at the Bree Louise in Euston. Fuller details will be published nearer the date.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.