Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This one is not as difficult as yesterday’s. I was held up on 19d because I initially read the last word of the clue as TURN rather than TUM. It’s an easy mistake to make with lower-case letters, but I’ll have to get new glasses!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
An interesting and varied collection of clues, slightly more difficult than yesterday’s but worth the effort to tease out. As usual, the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space inside if you’re totally stumped.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I was sailing through this one at a rate of knots until I hit 24a, where the wordplay held me up for ages until the penny finally dropped, swiftly followed by a bout of self-kicking! As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space inside the brackets to display the answer, but do try to get it from the hints first.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This is my first attempt at doing a write-up for a Toughie and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s got some challenging clues, as well as some easy ones, and doesn’t have too many obscure words.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
There’s nothing too difficult in today’s Cryptic crossword and the clues range from pretty neat to not so good. I’ve followed Big Dave’s convention in providing the answers hidden inside curly brackets (thanks to him for telling me how to achieve this effect). If you can’t work out the answer from my hint you can reveal it by highlighting the white space inside the curly brackets.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
It’s Thursday today, so Gazza’s back again. Don’t forget that the full analyses for last weekend’s puzzles are due to be published at noon. You may have already seen the Saturday review as it was released last Friday after being published online by mistake; some small revisions have been applied, mostly to give all the answers as well as the wordplay. BD
I thought that this was an entertaining crossword with some interesting clues and not too difficult, though it does contain one word I’d never heard of.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
It seems you all like Gazza’s hints and tips, so I’ve twisted his arm and he’s agreed to do two days a week, starting today, and then back on Thursday. I’ve added a few new bits and pieces to The Mine – Birthstones, Roman Numerals and Zodiac Signs – with more in the pipeline. BD
Today’s puzzle is quite interesting and certainly a bit harder than yesterday’s. There’s one clue (24 across) where I’m unable to provide a very satisfactory explanation of the wordplay and I’d be grateful for comments [stop press – mystery now solved – see clue below] Continue reading “DT Cryptic No 25860”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Last weeks contribution from Gazza was very favourably received, so he’s agreed to do it again. Don’t forget that Peter Biddlecombe’s review of last Saturday’s DT No 25852 is scheduled to be published at noon today. BD
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Doing this blog every day is a much bigger task than I imagined when I took it on. Fortunately, I have had offers of help from fellow solvers, this being the first. A blog is a very personal thing, and it was with considerable trepidation that I agreed to accept outside help, but that was before Gazza’s contribution arrived. I knew as soon as I read the first hint that I had not made a mistake, and I hope that you all agree with me. Please let both of us know, via the comments below, what you think. BD
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