Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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This puzzle was published on 23rd November 2025
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A truly tough yet entertaining puzzle from Dada this Sunday that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a full review of the same for your kind perusal and valuable feedback. Continue reading “ST 3344 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3593 by Donnybrook
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to the Toughie week!
Donnybrook has given us something of a challenge today. I found this to be much trickier than usual, and needed quite a bit more applied brain-power than I am accustomed to engaging before the morning tea has kicked in. It certainly wasn’t helped by having 1a as a “part two” of a later clue, which, perhaps irrationally, rather set the tone for a bit of a struggle. However, all of the clues are clear and fair, even if some are a little more left-field than others. I’m giving rosettes to 9a (for the holiday memories), 11a and 22a (for the surfaces) and 3d (for elegant simplicity). Thanks to Donnybrook for blasting away the mental cobwebs.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ***
After a thoroughly miserable day yesterday the sun is shining here in Harpenden so I might actually walk up to Harpenden golf club for a lunch with a friend without fear of getting soaked.
I assume today’s enjoyable puzzle is an Anthony Plumb production though some of the clues were wordier than is the norm for him. I found it reasonably straightforward & a brisk grid fill so wouldn’t expect it to present much difficulty to most solvers.
As ever there are an assortment of tunes/clips to accompany the (hopefully correct for a change) wordplay analysis.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED & the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons. Please leave a comment below telling us what you thought & how you got on with the puzzle.
Hello from Ilkley, where we were delighted to discover the place we’d booked for a meal to celebrate the children’s performances in The Nutcracker has been crowned crowned the best restaurant in England.
Hints and explanations for today’s Telegraph Crossword are below. Everything on this site is provided free of charge by enthusiasts of cryptic crosswords who wish to share this pastime with others, and we don’t expect anything in return. But if you do wish to express your appreciation for Big Dave’s Crossword Blog, maybe you could make a donation to the MND Association, as part of the newspaper’s Christmas charity appeal for this year?
Crossword Editor Chris Lancaster has written movingly of life since his unexpected diagnosis with motor neurone disease just 2 years ago, and how the MND Association have helped him — so this is a cause close to those of us on this site. Click on the donation link above and you can choose for your support to go specifically to the MND Association or to be split between all of this year’s charities. Or if you prefer to do these kinds of things by telephone, there’s a number at the bottom of the article.
Continue reading “DT 31098”