Toughie No 3773 by Shabbo
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to another Toughie Week. Thanks to Gazza for filling in last week whilst I was toiling away in the Santa Clara area: Anna’s Hummingbird, Least and Elegant terns, Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitcher, White Pelican and Northern Harrier were amongst the incidental avian highlights.
We have an excellent puzzle from Shabbo today (and a rare example of being right with my morning “guess the setter” game). There’s nothing too difficult, but the puzzle is very well crafted with generally concise but smooth-surfaced clues. 17a, 20d, 24a and 27a (lovely word) all stood out for me, but my absolute favourite today was the wonderful 1d – perfect on all fronts. Thanks to Shabbo for another cracker!
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3765 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from a soggy-morninged Wirral. I found this to be a curious puzzle. Three-quarters (especially the southern section) were very much at the Floughie end of the scale, but the North-west was almost its own separate mini-Toughie, with some relative obscurities and a bit more head-scratching required; nothing outrageous, though, and very clearly clued as usual with Chalicea. 1a was my stand-out favourite today, with honourable mentions to 5a, 5d and 20d.
Thank you, Chalicea, for a gentle and pleasant start to the Toughie Week
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Work are sending me off to California at the weekend (it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it…) so next week you will have Gazza to explain and entertain. Thanks in advance to him for filling in and letting me off the leash!
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Toughie No 3761 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment *****
A perfectly-pitched and excellent puzzle to start the Toughie Week, very much in harmony with the Wirral’s clear blue skies and just a hint of early-morning crispness this morning. One new word for me, and a few where it took me a little bit of thinking to separate the crossword clue from the ultra-smooth surfaces, so I’ve upgraded the difficulty rating half a notch. No issues with the enjoyment, though; a delight from start to finish. Too many top-notch clues to list, and even choosing a favourite is impossible, so I’m giving out four prizes to the perimeter clues.
Thanks, Hudson, for a cracker of a puzzle!
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3757 by Shabbo
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Welcome to the Toughie week. Autumn is advancing on the Wirral, and the first pink-footed geese have made their return to the Dee estuary from the Icelandic summer holidays to brighten the region’s soundscape with their squeaking.
Shabbo has given us an enjoyable, and not-too-tricky puzzle today, although some of the parsing took me a little bit of head scratching. 5d, 6d, 9a, 10a and 24d all get honourable mentions, but I’m giving my top spot today to 8d. Thanks to Shabbo for easing us gently into the week.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3753 by Beam
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
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Toughie No 3749 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
We have an enjoyable start to the Toughie Week with Chalicea being somewhat less benign than usual. I also didn’t help myself by mistakenly opening the Back-pager on the iPad (my dead tree being a little late today) and thinking we had an extreme Floughie, then realising that the clues I had already pasted into the Blog on my PC didn’t match my short-term recall, twigging my stupidity and having to start again. At least by this time, the dead tree had arrived so I was safe in analogue-land. The Present Lady Whybird is considering blocking me from the internet for our mutual safety. It was very interesting to experience the contrast in styles in back-to-back fashion and I felt it made solving Chalicea’s puzzle more difficult.
There are plenty of clues that get honourable mentions, including 1d, 4d, 6a, 7d, 16a and 19d, but I’m giving my top prize today to 3d.
Thanks, Chalicea, for a fun start to the week.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3745 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to another Toughie week.
Hudson has given us a puzzle which feels just about the perfect level for a Tuesday Toughie. There’s nothing outrageously obscure (the Scottish chimney being a possible exception but that crops up reasonably regularly) but there are a fair few that required some thinking about. And all that with a good sprinkling of top-notch surfaces. There’s been quite a lot of congestion around the podium, but I’m going with 26a, 12d and 23a just being pipped by 14a. But 4a really needs an honourable mention too. Thank you, Hudson, for a wonderful start to the week.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3741 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings and welcome to another Toughie Week! Many thanks to Gazza and ALP for filing in whist I was off on my Jollies – Audouin’s gull, Cory’s, Scopoli’s, Balearic and Manx shearwaters, crested tit, spotless starling, black redstart, long-finned pilot whale, common dolphin, loggerhead turtle, and a (probably Fin) whale were the wildlife highlights, plus 70-odd seconds of total eclipse, so I’m pretty happy with that haul!
Dada had given us a stiff test today, certainly meriting its Toughie label. There are some very clever and inventive clues but I didn’t warm to it as much as I was expecting, although I can’t really work out why. 16a and 26a get honourable mentions, but I’m giving my top prize today to 18a. Thanks to Dada for robustly knocking away the post-holiday cobwebs.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3729 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Welcome to another Toughie Week.
For once I managed to Guess the Setter, so started with a win, and the North went in fairly rapidly. However, Chalicea has thrown a couple of curve balls today that had me scrabbling around to check both existence and meaning, and I also came up with what I thought was a reasonable answer for 27a which, being incorrect, made the SW trickier. I particularly liked 1a, 4d, 6a, 13a 28a and 30a but I’m giving my Gold Medal position to 16d.
Thank you, Chalicea, for an enjoyable start to the week.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
I am taking a brief sabbatical for the next couple of weeks in an attempt to catch up with some “glorified seagulls”. Next week, you will have Gazza and the following week ALP, so thanks to both for filing in.
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Toughie No 3725 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to another Toughie Week.
We have another perfectly-pitched Tuesday Toughie from Hudson. Nothing too tricky, but plenty to get the cogs ticking over and a lot of very clever surfaces, some of which assist the solve, and some of which are misdirections. 5d, 8a, 18a, 22d and 26a are all great clues that any other day could have made top spot, but I’m giving my Gold Star to 25a today.
Thank you, Hudson, for a very enjoyable start to the week.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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