Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. A super puzzle with some witty and stylish surfaces, an &lit or two, and a well-judged mix of difficulty, with containment clues dominating and fewer anagrams than usual (4 out of 32). Continue reading “DT 30289”
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***/****
Good morning. A fairly brisk solve with perhaps a greater proportion of straightforward clues than we usually see on a Tuesday, but plenty of well-disguised deception and clever exploitation of multiple meanings to keep us on our guard. Continue reading “DT 30283”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. Great fun with a lot of relatively straight clues to keep the momentum going, but a handful of thorny ones (particularly in the NE for me) to cleverly delay plain sailing.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. Great fun to solve, with a fair distribution of clues of varying difficulty, plenty of examples of skilfully disguising the line between definition and wordplay, and four clues with amusingly topical surfaces. Continue reading “DT 30271”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***/****
Good morning. A nice mix of clue types with perhaps a few more straightforward ones than usual, but enough deception and cleverness to keep solvers on their toes. Continue reading “DT 30265”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Good afternoon. I’m in Gazza’s Thursday chair for one week only, and what a superb puzzle this was for my first Toughie blog: beautifully composed with a wide variety of devices and deceptions, and some clever thematic clues relating to the opening solution. The difficulty rating might be a little lower for anyone who got the gateway solution quicker than I did!
Continue reading “Toughie 3035”
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****/*****
Good morning. A superb example of a crossword with clues that are elegant and concise, deceptive but fair, and with consistently amusing surface readings. Continue reading “DT 30253”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. Among the very welcome anagrams and relatively straightforward clues, there seemed to be a little more than the usual amount of fiendishness, albeit with brilliantly clever wordplay – eg 17a and 25a – and some lovely disguises. This led to a longer solve for me, but a very satisfying challenge. Many thanks to the setter.
Continue reading “DT 30247”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. Some very crisp and elegantly economical clues, and a few deceptive curveballs to keep us on our toes in an excellent, fun puzzle.
Many thanks to the setter. Continue reading “DT 30241”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. An entertaining puzzle with a decent variety of devices and a nicely-judged mixture of difficulty, with some clever deceptions in some definitions. I found the bottom half of the puzzle trickier than the top, but there were no great hold-ups in the end. Continue reading “DT 30235”