Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Miffypops is on holiday. He and Sharon called in for lunch last Friday, en route to a weekend away from their pub, and it was a pleasure to meet them both.
This Rufus puzzle is probably a tad easier than last week’s perhaps because there are seven clues which include anagrams.
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In response to a number of requests, I have added a page, The Usual Suspects, to the Crosswords section of the blog. This lists some of the wordplay elements commonly used in cryptic crosswords. I hope it proves to be useful, especially to newer solvers.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a number of the more difficult clues and provide hints for them.
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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. Sorry I have been missing for the past few weeks, I’ve been getting ready for forthcoming surgery which happens next week. And I return to the sound of the hobnailed boots from the crossword equivalent of Mark Labbett, the Cruciverbal Beast, Elgar.
After the past couple of his puzzles have been benign, I found this a really tough challenge, back to his ferocious best and after some relatively gentle Toughies this week, this was right up there at the top end of the scale. I managed most of the bottom half of the grid, and then really struggled with the remainder. Some of the phrases used in the puzzle were new to me as well, which didn’t help. But this is where the Toughie lives up to its name, and long may it continue to do so. Thanks to Jon Delfin in New York and Madame Crypticsue for putting me right about a couple, including 11 – I had that one wrong! There were a couple of answers today which were abbreviations and were shown as (3) which was a little confusing.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs on a grey January day.
I struggled a bit with the left-hand side of this Giovanni puzzle, until 7d finally emerged. Well into *** difficulty.
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
A fairly typical Saturday prize puzzle from the Mysteron, but with a few too many ‘old friends’ for my liking. Perhaps I have been doing these crosswords too long!!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Bufo is in London today, so Gazza has kindly offered to tackle Ray T, leaving me with the Toughie. My only hold-up was having to wait until I had the answer to 16 down before being able to solve 1 across.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We’re playing musical chairs today. Bufo is tied up so BD is covering the Toughie which gives me the chance to blog this enjoyable Ray T puzzle. There are quite a few ‘gimmes’ in it which should provide ways in to the slightly more difficult clues. Do let us know how you got on.
Continue reading “DT 27394”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A fine crossword that took a bit of unravelling for me.