Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Today we have another really good puzzle from Notabilis – it’s turning out to be a fine Toughie week so far. It’s no mean feat to provide a challenging and entertaining puzzle without needing to resort to a single obscure word or phrase. Let’s have your views in a comment.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from a not so sunny Spain! Pommette and I may have taken the sun with us to the UK but we seem to have forgotten to bring it back!
After my rather grumpy blog a couple of weeks ago I’m pleased to say I thoroughly enjoyed this fine puzzle from Jay (presumably it is he) and recommend it to all. There are a few fairly easy clues to get you started and a few to make you scratch your head a bit – a nice mixture IMO. I took longer in the NE corner than the rest of the puzzle put together but looking back I’m not sure why that was. I’ll be interested to hear how you get on with it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Once again we have a Beam puzzle with cleverly concealed definitions and synonyms which stretch the imagination. This was a pleasure to solve, which is more than I can say for the previous couple of Tuesday Toughies.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I don’t know whether our setters knew that we were going to get all this lovely weather but lately the majority of cryptics seem to have been both entertaining and quick to solve, leaving us time to get on with enjoying ourselves. This offering from Virgilius followed the trend with some great clues and wonderful penny-dropping moments so thank you to him once again.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment **
I was hoping for a Shamus puzzle today but I’m pretty sure that this is not one of his (I’m laying myself open to a big egg-on-face moment here!). It seems to have a North American bias and is one of the easiest back-page puzzles I can remember. I completed it without deriving a great deal of enjoyment and found the surface readings of quite a few clues quite awkward, but on the plus side it should provide the opportunity for a mass escape by members of the Clueless Club.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I hope everybody is enjoying their bank holiday in the UK, no such luck in France. If a holiday falls on a weekend then we lose it. A typical Rufus crossword today, with a high anagram content. Of all clues, I think I liked 17a the most.
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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.