Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that this was a fairly standard Toughie from Giovanni, with perhaps a higher than usual contribution of names (both mythical and real) and places. Let us know how you fared.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. I don’ t think anyone will be needing these hints today! This is by far the gentlest of all the Jay puzzles that I’ve blogged, easily my fasted solve, but quite enjoyable for all that. For once you don’t need to start with the downs! I got all but two of the across clues on first pass, (although I did get one wrong, d’oh!). Maybe I was just on good form and you’ll all disagree. It will be interesting to hear your views.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This middle-of-the road, in terms of difficulty, Toughie was quite enjoyable. A number of the clues use bits of words, like a trio meaning the first three letters, but you get used to them.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This one is not too difficult although the omission of clue 28a in the newspaper version may have made it a bit trickier for back-page solvers. I didn’t enjoy it that much – the anagram count is quite high (I have ten As written on my printed sheet) and there also seemed to be a lot of clues where you had to insert or delete single characters. Let us know how you got on.
To reveal an answer just highlight the space between the brackets under the clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another typically enjoyable Rufus crossword to start the week. Got a bit stuck on 8d (don’t ask why) when I thought the answer was “in ones power”.
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the more difficult clues and provide hints for them.
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External returns with a highly enjoyable crossword today. There is lots of wit, inventive cluing and misdirection to keep you amused and guessing. More of the same, please.
I have highlighted my favourite clues in blue. Drop by and let us have your comments.
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Welcome to the latest in our series of puzzles, which have now been running every week for over two years.
A few weeks ago we published our first puzzle by eXternal. You enjoyed that one, so now here’s another.
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Advance notice – Tilsit is organising a Northern Sloggers & Betters meeting on April 21st in Todmorden, West Yorkshire.
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! The lovely Crypticsue was at a loose end today and kindly offered to tackle the Downs for me. You simply cannot refuse an offer like that so we have a review that’s in keeping with the theme of the puzzle. The Toughie Tormentor Supreme Elgar is back with a fun puzzle that is packed with an awful lot of thematic material. One of the hallmarks of a great puzzle is that it draws you in and this one did it in style. I personally zipped through the NE and SW corners and then hit a brick in the NW corner. Not helped by only one way in with the design of the grid, I then found it quite tough and needed a prod from my colleague to get in.
Crypticsue writes:- “Greetings from East Kent too! Don’t tell the boss (currently on holiday) that I was at a loose end – I enjoyed this puzzle so much first thing today that I welcomed the chance to have double the fun – I put dots by the clues I like and my newspaper is quite ‘spotty’ today. I was only really held up by parsing 1a but luckily Tilsit came to my rescue. Thanks to him and Elgar too.”