Toughie No 1525 by Kcit
Hints and tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
As is traditional, Gazza kindly offered me the chance to do an on the day Toughie review while I am on my Christmas/New Year break from work. This time the email inviting me to do so came with the ‘rule’ that I had to decide before the setter’s name went up on the website. After checking the list to see who might be due to make an appearance in the middle of the paper, I said ‘yes please’ and so here I am with my thoughts on this Kcit Toughie.
The crossword didn’t take long to solve and my only hold up was deciding whether my explanation of 1d was what our setter intended. All my test solving of cryptic crosswords has definitely made me more conscious of the spread of clue types in each crossword I solve – did anyone else notice that there are ten clues requiring you to remove a letter (in most cases, an initial letter) in order to obtain their solutions??