Toughie No 3017 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by StephenL
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Hello everyone from a blue skies South Devon coast where the sun is shining and the daffodils are blooming.
Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Hello everyone from a blue skies South Devon coast where the sun is shining and the daffodils are blooming.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. An entertaining puzzle with a decent variety of devices and a nicely-judged mixture of difficulty, with some clever deceptions in some definitions. I found the bottom half of the puzzle trickier than the top, but there were no great hold-ups in the end. Continue reading “DT 30235”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from Almoradí, heart of the Vega Baja on a beautiful sunny, but chilly, morning. The move went off well and in a few hours I’ll have been in the new place for a whole week.
Today’s puzzle is the usual Monday fare but I thought it a tad trickier than some Mondays have been. However, that could just be me having an off morning having had a very busy week sorting out the new home. It will be interesting to see what you all make of it.
Continue reading “DT 30234”
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A Heinz 57 variety of a puzzle today, 14 acrosses and 16 downs with plenty of anagrams and lurkers in both directions.
France in particular gets a lot of mentions as well as a couple of other Europeans as well as South America and a nod to our New Zealanders.
I have hinted half but if you need any extra help ask away, I may be away entertaining Mama Bee but I am sure one of our happy band of solvers will help with a nudge.
Here we go…
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I wonder if when two setters are contemplating a collaboration their decision is influenced by the name of the hybrid which will result. eXternal and Serpent combine very neatly to produce eXtent, and the marriage of Hellebore and Phi to produce Hellphire was surely irresistible. Eclipse plus Logogriph is less obvious, Ecriph or Loglipse having understandably been ignored in favour of Eclogue. But what about Ifor and Wickball getting together as Iball, or Harribobs and Piccadilly forming Harpic? Jacques and Sea-kale as Jacqusea, perhaps? Curmudgeon and Wan might need to think carefully about names before entering into an alliance, though…
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A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where we have been back in the deep freeze for most of the week but the forecast is suggesting a few days of minus single digit highs which of course means that it will be warm enough (a relative term) for some more snow.… Continue reading
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A bright and sunny Saturday morning, although you wouldn’t want to spend long outside as it would appear that the wind is coming direct from the North Pole.
Continue reading “DT 30233 (Hints)”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
A pleasing symmetry of enumeration around the grid, including the (4,4) pairs and the (5,5,5,5) square. Continue reading “Toughie 3016”