Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating –Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
The Saturday Mysteron’s turn to entertain us this week and he didn’t disappoint. A very entertaining mix of clues, complete with a nice example of relevant back page product placement for those of us who still solve using the newspaper version. Favourites are, as usual, marked in blue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
One of the many ways my crosswording life improved after I ‘found’ Big Dave and his blog was that I became a regular solver and then a fortnightly reviewer of the Sunday puzzle. This week’s offering was another candidate for best puzzle of the week, containing the excellent clueing, trademark hidden words and a few d’oh moments too. My top favourites are marked in blue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
The usual Sunday mix of excellent clues, trademark hidden words, great d’oh moments and even the possibility of a theme – well there were two London railway stations in the answers. Thanks to Virgilius once again for a splendid start to Sunday morning.
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BD Rating –Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I commented on Saturday that this would have been the perfect puzzle for Goldilocks as it was a ‘just right’ mixture of cryptic clues, anagrams, charades and ‘what??!!’ to suit every level of solver. Thanks once again to the Saturday Mysteron.
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The prolific Prolixic returns with another splendid puzzle which I originally solved some weeks ago leaning on a sea wall on a lovely sunny morning. Apart from having a very dense moment with one clue (I am not saying which one!), I found this very easy going and as enjoyable as all puzzles by Prolixic tend to be.
Favourite clues are highlighted in blue.
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BD Rating –Difficulty ** – Enjoyment */**
I thought I was going to be reviewing a Cephas puzzle as usual but this one was from a ‘new’ Saturday Mysteron, ie not the one I am expecting to review next week. I turned to the back page of the paper, keen to see what was in store, only to find …
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***/****
This excellent Sunday Virgilius just sneaks into 3* difficulty territory because of the problems I had with why the solution to 6d was what it was (I wasn’t alone!) and the slightly longer solving time, not to mention one application of Tippex! I still can’t make up my mind whether it’s 3* or 4* enjoyment but it was definitely a great start to Sunday morning however many stars it gets.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another splendid start to Sunday from Virgilius – I had a bit of a mental block with 12a but once I had worked it out, thought it should join my list of favourite clues, all highlighted in blue.
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BD Rating –Difficulty * – Enjoyment **/***
Our Saturday Mysteron provided us with another straightforward but enjoyable start to Saturday morning. However did it contain, as Prolixic pointed out, a hidden message commenting on the problems with the Telegraph Puzzles site? Have a look at the solutions to 26a, 5d and 3d and see what you think.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This week Cephas presented us with one of those seems-tricky-while-solving/took-the-same-time-as usual puzzles , but that’s one of the joys of cryptic solving, one never knows how each puzzle will work out. Thanks to Cephas once again.