Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
Very Tuesday-appropriate, I felt. A little trickery, of course, but nothing too spooky.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ***
Another fairly gentle puzzle to ease us into the new week. As ever with an AP production it was well clued throughout & with some nice touches of humour.
The wind has died down & at least it’s not raining here in Harpenden but still pretty miserable. A day for coats and woolly hats if venturing out. Alternatively stay warm & have a bash at Dada’s puzzle in the Toughie slot.
In the following hints, definitions are underlined, indicators are mostly in parentheses, and answers are revealed by clicking where shown as usual. Please leave a comment below on how you got on with the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa, where winter has finally made an appearance. We have had a couple of fairly significant snowfalls recently and the ground is blanketed in white. However, it may not stick around for long as rain is forecast this coming week.
I encountered several old friends among the clues in Robyn’s puzzle today. This was welcome as I am likely not at my sharpest after spending a couple of hours clearing snow earlier in the day and working in my volunteer position at the hockey game this afternoon.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Sunday Toughie No 150
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Well that was a surprise! Beam has shone over my Saturday night/Sunday morning. Once I got over the surprise it went smoothly. All the usual 20d’s are there (Average 5.3 words per clue, sweetheart and a queen) I am sure there are other Beam trademarks but my experience of Beam is somewhat limited as his toughies usually fall on my busy work days
14a and 16d clues and I have hinted just under half – a bonus nudge may be available if you are still stuck
Here we go, Folks…
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Growing up as an only child, I often had to adapt pastimes to suit my situation, whether that meant throwing balls at the wall of our house so I could catch them when they bounced back, taking myself on at chess, captaining both the England and Rest of the World cricket teams (brilliantly) in a game of Owzthat, or writing pieces of prose containing deliberate errors so that I could correct them in red pen (I probably shouldn’t have admitted that…)
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where, yesterday afternoon, we enjoyed a t-shirts and shorts temperature of plus 4 degrees.
For me, and I stress for me, wind the clock back by 314 blogs to November 18, 2018, Dada’s first Sunday, where I wrote ‘I think he has given us something that is closer to one of his Toughies’ and the same applies today – several longish ‘uns, seven anagrams (four partials), one lurker, and no homophones all in a symmetric 28 clues; with 14, plus one bonus, hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. … Continue reading
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Toughie No 3388 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ***
Sparks has given us a pretty tricky double (thanks Huntman) pangram today – thanks to him. There are a few gimmes but most of the clues need some cogitation.
Continue reading “Toughie 3388”