Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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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”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****/*****
Good morning. A hugely entertaining puzzle filled with elegant and witty surfaces, a wide variety of clue-types, and a nice balance of straight definitions and less obvious ones. Continue reading “DT 30229”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. I thought this was great fun, with some very tight clueing and clever deceptions. It seemed that for every solution that went in fairly quickly, there was another that held me up for longer than normal, particularly in the top half, a sign of a testing but fair challenge. Many thanks to the setter. Continue reading “DT 30223”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. A nice variety of devices, a few relatively simple clues, and some knottier ones produced a challenge that was good fun to rise to. Of the ones that took the longest to solve, 22a held out to the end – guessable, but took me a while to parse. Many thanks to the setter, and kudos for the topical 21d. Continue reading “DT 30217”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. A very playful puzzle, beautifully constructed with some interconnecting clues, amusing anagrams, a handful of pretty easy ones, and some where a little head-scratching and perhaps lateral thinking were required. Many thanks to the setter. Continue reading “DT 30211”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning. A nice mix of relatively straightforward clues and a few having more complicated wordplay requiring more thought added up to an enjoyable challenge.
Many thanks to the setter.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****/*****
Good morning. Fantastic fun, a puzzle with some lovely anagrams and clever cryptic definitions and a selection of other clue types executed with wit and panache. So enjoyable. Continue reading “DT 30199”