Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
I thought this was a very straightforward puzzle today, but I’m sure that some of the usual suspects will disagree. The only lesser-known word was clued in such a way that it could be easily derived (I said lesser-known, not obscure!).
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
We got an awful lot of lovely Virgilius clues for our money on the last Sunday in April, so many in fact that when I printed off the puzzle, two of the Across clues and one Down clue appeared on a second piece of paper. My Green Impact persona might complain at the use of an extra sheet of paper, but the crossword addict in me was delighted to have more fun from the Sunday Maestro.
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| What? | The 9th annual “Sloggers and Betters” gathering for crossword setters and blog contributors and readers will take place in London, following on, as in previous years, from the annual lunch for Times setters. |
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
There’s a nice theme in this puzzle, based on the comic actor who was born 100 years ago today. Once I’d got his name it wasn’t too difficult to get most of the answers although I had to think about a few bits of the wordplay. There seemed to be a quite a few clues requiring us to delete one or more letters from what we’d put together.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **+*/2 – Enjoyment ***
This was a slow start, but the solving rate then quickened, so that I’d give this a 2.5* difficulty/3* enjoyment rating. Thanks to Jay.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
The usual solid puzzle from Giovanni, with the difficulty coming only from obscurities.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning from South Staffs on a bright sunny morning.
Just back from a pleasant weekend in deepest Wiltshire (or Wadworthshire, as the local hostelries would have it). A ** crossword for me, though a couple of less frequently used words may complicate matters.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
A beautiful morning and a fun crossword, what more can you want!
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Don’t forget to enter our May prize crossword.
As you may have read here earlier this week, James Leonard, aka Rustic, Citrus and Mr Lemon, died last weekend. As a tribute the Telegraph have republished the first ever EV, Greetings by Rustic. Why not try out this puzzle?
Today we can celebrate the success of yet another NTSPP setter. The Independent on Sunday has published a debut puzzle by eXternal. Congratulations to him.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the more difficult clues and provide hints for them.