Toughie 937 by Elgar
Exactly what it says on the label!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
To review an Elgar Toughie you need to be 100% fit and have all your cryptic grey matter in fine fettle. At the moment, Fred and Ginger combined just about fit this description so have collaborated once again in order to sort out this excellent Toughie.
The BD rating reflects our view that there was a nice range of clues from the fluffy to the positively impaling! Ginger ground to a halt with five clues needing cogitation; luckily Fred was on hand to help with two of them and some of the other wordplay that was a mystery to her.
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Toughie 834 by Elgar
Where did those years go???
Brought to you by Fred and Ginger
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The fiendish Vlad obviously donned his fluffier footwear today in order to mark an event that happened fifteen years ago today. Elgar’s puzzles often divide opinions and we imagine that this one will do so too. However, if you want to be able to say that you managed to defeat the great man, this may well be the puzzle to try. As Ginger is having an awayday today, we had to wait up until just after midnight to tackle this little gem.
Being old, Fred had forgotten about the date, but from the last across clue, things suddenly fell into place. It has to be said that Fred has an acute aversion to this song, much preferring the original version which was haunting and memorable.
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Toughie 810 by Elgar
Feeling Vlad All Over!
Hints and tips by Crypticsue and Tilsit (aka Ginger and Fred)
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Matron has given permission for Tilsit to return to light duties but, as that is not a description befitting today’s crossword, the double act is back! Richard and Judy are busy, Richard is off round his local Tesco and Judy is checking out Oddbins. So Crypticsue has put one her finest chiffon and Tilsit his top hat and tails (think it’s the right way round).
Once again, Vlad has provided us with a top level toughie with lots of tricky clues, groans and d’oh moments which combine to make a very fine brain stretching. It does have a blog-relevant NINA* which helps no end to round up the ‘stragglers’. We both found this right at the top end of things, and although we don’t talk times as a policy here, quite some time has spent wrestling with this.
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