Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
A tad quirky, I thought, but crammed with Dada’s usual trademarks – a bombardment of double definitions and anagrams, plus a wee smidgeon of cheek and GK, hence the extra half-star.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment **/***
Maybe it’s a case of the miserable weather putting me in a contrary humour but for me today’s puzzle felt if anything a tad pedestrian. It was of course well clued but I felt it lacked the usual dose of AP humour – or maybe I’ve just missed it. Either way pretty straightforward & I doubt that many will need the hints. Worth reading for the generous prize on offer for the first person to spot one of my parsing mistakes – I’m on a hat-trick….
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.
Hello, from a train hurtling up the East Coast Main Line, carrying a precious cargo of macarons back to Yorkshire from this blog’s Birthday Bash in London at the weekend. At the time this is published I should be somewhere between Peterborough and Grantham, if the service is keeping to schedule. And if the train wi-fi is working, I might even have had time to add some pictures or music to the hints below.
Thank you so much to Sloop John Bee and Elgar for arranging the Bash. It was so lovely to meet people in person. We must do it again sometime.
On to today’s crossword: hints and explanations are below, with the definition parts of clues underlined. Do ask if anything still isn’t clear, and let us know how you found the puzzle and which clues you particularly liked. Comments from lurkers would be as welcome as they are oxymoronic. Check the etiquette guide for house rules.
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Zandio very graciously provided me with an advanced copy of this puzzle. I imagine I will be a “bit under the weather” after the Big Bash and unable to give this puzzle a good blogging. By the time you read this, I should be on a train home but I will respond to comments if and when I can.
I hope I have transcribed the clues accurately, as I haven’t seen the puzzle in print yet. It is quite tricky and has lots of cross-references between clues. Big Dave’s advice when I started these hints almost three years ago was to hint first and last across and down clues with about half the clues hinted. I have stopped at half hints before I got to the end.
I have hinted at half of the 14a and 16d clues. I hope you find the checkers to enable completion, as the journey home from the Big Bash may make bonus nudges a bit tricky.
*Post Bash update*
All had a great time, and it was even better to see so many old and new faces. The Teams link was a little problematic, but I hope those who managed to log on could join in the fun a little. Many thanks to Steve C who got the ball rolling with a donation to the bar bill, even though he may have preferred not to be teased by those displaying “Mythical” Pens. Over the next few days, I hope to collate photos taken and put them in the gallery.
Here we go…
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I often wonder how pre-”everything is available online” generations managed to solve thematic puzzles. I suppose that the answer is that puzzle construction and puzzle decoding have co-evolved. Compilers must now assume that “full text” searching is at their solvers’ fingertips but in the past could only rely on access to hardcopy indexes. Or perhaps our ancestors were simply better educated and certainly had better actual libraries.
A very good post Birthday Bash Sunday morning from Staines-Upon-Thames in Surrey, it used to be plain old Staines, Middlesex when I was a lad and nothing seems to have changed. … Continue reading
This bonus NTSPP is, like NTSPP 781, a puzzle created for today's Birthday Bash
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