Sunday Toughie No 161
by Light
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Well another mystery setter, can anyone throw any light on who Light may be? He hasn’t appeared under that name in the categories list. It seems like a Ray Terrell kind of pseudonym Ray Beam Light, but we don’t have The Queen, sweetheart or single-word answers and a frankly Djangoesque 12-word clue in 22a (the average clue length comes down to just over 6 per clue). Nevertheless, I will plump for RayT looking for a suitable level between his backpager and proper toughie (Beam) guises. He may even have signed it in the sixth row of “unches”
15a and 20a floated my boat today but COTD goes to 9d. What did you like?
Here we go, Folks…
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 161 (Hints)”
Enigmatic Variations 1683 (Hints)
Parking Offence by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Gabriel
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Chalicea is another prolific setter encountered in all the usual places. For instance, in the Magpie series where she invariably sets at the A-grade level. This typically indicates fewer degrees of freedom and an accessible endgame that doesn’t suffer from GWIT (“guess what I’m thinking”). This puzzle is no exception.
In true Phibs style, I told Gemini: “in a thematic crossword puzzle, we are asked to identify a parking offence and the person performing it” to which they responded laconically with:
“Offence: OVERTIME
Person: METERFEEDER (someone adding money to extend time)”.
Was that helpful? You decide.
Continue reading “EV 1683 (Hints)”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3305 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where the meteorologists (didn’t I comment on them recently?) are clinging to their forecast on the end of the Arctic freeze and by today we might be 35 degrees Celsius warmer than we were on Wednesday – minus 31 to plus 4! … Continue reading