Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***
The NW corner was the only one to put up any resistance and it led to the extra half star for difficulty. Continue reading “Toughie 2305”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
It’s a Beam day so the Kiwis can get busy with their word counter, Gazza can put his anagram counter away until tomorrow and everyone can watch out for the usual couple of lurkers. I had a slow start, then accelerated to fill the top half, and finally completed the bottom half at a leisurely pace. It was enjoyable as Beam puzzles usually are. Continue reading “Toughie 2301”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I’m not sure what I made of this one. I never really warmed to it but at the same time never ran into any significant problems. I’m not sure why because there were some nice touches (though I didn’t care much for the cryptic definitions). Maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind. I’ll be interested to see what other solvers made of it. Continue reading “Toughie 2297”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Yet another Thursday Hudson puzzle and this one was extremely disappointing from the difficulty point of view because all the answers went in very quickly with only 30 across needing any real thought. There seemed to be a lot of single letters used in the wordplay Continue reading “Toughie 2293”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
An enjoyable puzzle with some original touches. It wasn’t particularly difficult though I had to think hard about some of the parsing. Continue reading “Toughie 2289”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Today Beam becomes the latest setter to reach a century of Toughies and I seem to have blogged more than my fair share of them. Not that I mind because I always enjoy them and today’s was no exception. Mind you I think I was not quite with it today because I made far harder work of this Beam puzzle than I usually do. But I got there in the end though some of the parsing needed winkling out. Continue reading “Toughie 2285”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A gentle work-out this morning with no significant hold-ups. Continue reading “Toughie 2281”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***/****
Thanks to our publican and dankeschön to our German correspondent for covering the past two Thursdays while I was otherwise occupied. I have been looking forward to my first battle with a Zandio puzzle. Continue reading “Toughie 2277”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***
Nothing too arduous today though I did use the fact that it’s a double pangram for 11 across and the last couple of answers. Continue reading “Toughie 2265”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Kcit seems to have upped the difficulty level in the last two of his puzzles that I have blogged.… Continue reading