Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided for them.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from the Calder Valley. Our Friday Fiend is Firefly who has produced an interesting and challenging puzzle that will delight some, and perhaps infuriate others. I found it more enjoyable than some of his recent offerings but I found a couple of clues that could only be solved once I had the answer, which isn’t the point of a crossword, as far as I am aware, in other words a bit too clever for their own good. I’d be interested to see if anyone managed to solve 12 across without getting all the intersecting letters. Lots of clever surface readings but again the odd one that doesn’t quite work for me.
I looked around for a theme, or a Nina, especially given the grid used, but couldn’t see anything other than a linked clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
An unusual mix of clues this week from Virgilius – not one single anagram, and, unless you count 1a (which is sort of hidden) none of the trademark hidden clues either. This time more straightforward than tricky but as usual excellent fun. Favourite clues highlighted in blue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
We have a really enjoyable puzzle from Giovanni today with some great clues. Let us know how it grabbed you.
If you’re desperate to get an answer just highlight the word hidden behind the spaces between the brackets under the relevant clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Morning All! We had an enjoyable puzzle last Saturday which was made more difficult from a hangover caused by my Birthday the previous day!.My solving time put it in the 3 star category but might not be representative.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
After a slow start I made steady progress without ever stalling. I found the difficulty level to be slightly above average. I think the difficulty was enhanced by Beam’s policy of not including multi-word answers and by the complete absence of anagrams.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *
If you want your weekly fix of Ray T then don’t look here, go and do the Toughie instead! The musical and sporting references suggest the possible setter, but for me this gimmick has worn very thin and I didn’t enjoy this puzzle at all.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Regular Toughie solvers will know that MynoT is currently working his way through the consonants and that his last puzzle covered F, so, having found out last night that he was today’s setter, I set about polishing an alliterative sub-title using plenty of Gs. All to no avail, because he’s skipped a few letters.
I have to admire the skill that goes into compiling a puzzle like this, but it necessitates the use of some pretty obscure words and seems a bit forced so I didn’t enjoy it that much. Let us know your thoughts.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. This puzzle will be a lot easier if you can solve 10a quickly as 5 of the other across clues refer to it. I found it a little tricky as I’m not familiar with a couple of the types of 10a but I got there in the end. Some of you will probably think it a doddle! It only just got into the 3* time for me so if I knew a bit more about 10a probably only 2*.
It’s also the first time I’ve had to blog a puzzle where so many clues refer to another. It’s not easy to hint those that refer to 10a without giving 10a away. Hope I’ve done it OK. I’ve been blogging Jay’s puzzles for the best part of a year now and he’s never done one with so many linked clues in all that time so the thought’s crossed my mind that this may not be one of his, perhaps he’ll pop in and let us know.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I had to check a couple of the answers in this puzzle, but those answers were well clued. There’s a mini-theme which is alluded to in the sub-heading!