Bridge House 2
by Prolixic
Reviewed by Snowman
A pdf of the puzzle is available here Bridge House 2
Thanks to Prolixic for this, the second of two puzzles he created for this year’s Birthday Bash, along with appreciation for the time he devotes to the crossword community generally such as creating an excellent guide to the construction of cryptic crossword clues (which is available to download from CrypticCrosswords.net) and reviewing Rookie Corner every week. Thanks also to SJB for organising the bash and blogging the prize Toughie every Sunday.
I thought this was tricky, perhaps in the Toughie class, but there are plenty of back pager level clues to get you going. Well worth a go.
I have provided hints below. There are a couple of references to Wiktionary, which should be treated with suitable caution.
SJB’s Notes. Thanks for the thanks and for doing the blog for this Snowman. I was getting worried about my “job” as Sunday Toughie blogger, as you not only spotted the fourth definition in 10a, you also parsed 25a better than my early efforts. I am not sure if you could call it a Nina, but there are several references to the blog (6a), the nature of the celebration (20d) and a couple that reference the age of Big Dave’s Blog (11a,15a and maybe 26d). If there are more than those, I hope Prolixic can explain.
Italics, pics and vids are mine!
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Toughie No 3629 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hello and welcome to another Toughie week. Could someone kindly go out and switch the Wirral’s daylight on, please? It still feels like nighttime, although I know it isn’t, thanks to a disturbed night courtesy of Lord Alfie-du-Sniffs who dragged me from my slumbers twice for access to the garden… I should take that as a positive, but I’d much rather he hadn’t helped himself to whatever dubious substances he found whilst fossicking around Birkenhead Park yesterday!
We have something of a challenging puzzle from Dada today – definitely no Floughie for me. My heart sank when I saw the grid – I always find the proliferation of unchecked initial letters to be a challenge. Then I thought we might be on for an easy-to-spot Nina that may have helped, but, alas, no such luck – at least not as far as I can see! The solve wasn’t helped by getting my first one in (9a) wrong – being too clever for my own good. There are some quite tough nuts to crack amongst a smattering of “Gimmes”, and to my taste there are too many onomatopoeic-like terms employed. But there are also some gems, and some “usual suspects” with lesser-spotted – but perfectly fair – meanings to get the cogs whirring. Rosettes from me today for 15a (my last one in), 20a and 4d, but my overall prize goes to 2d.
Thanks to Dada for unlocking the mental machinery, and for the first time in a while providing me with an obvious bird illustration!
Please let us know how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31153
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ***/****
Yet another cold & dreary looking day here in Harpenden. Roll on spring & a return to the fairways.
As Senf would say a Typically Tuesdayish puzzle which I’m assuming is the work of Anthony Plumb. I think I was a little unfair on last week’s production & certainly out of kilter with the majority of comment so am rather relieved that I found this one very enjoyable for the relatively short time it lasted. As ever tightly clued & with some humour in there too.
As usual there are an assortment of clips to enjoy or ignore.
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.
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