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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Toughie No 3721 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment *****
Welcome to the Toughie Week.
Dada has given us a cracker to get things started: lots of inventive and misleading clues with smooth surfaces. Perfect for a Tuesday I think – plenty that needs the old cogs to be given a spin or two, but nothing that didn’t yield to a little bit of lateral thinking, and a few “gimmes” to get the ball rolling. 4d, 10d, 23a, 26d and 28a all get big ticks from me today, but it almost would have been easier just to refer to the list below; there are so many good ‘uns. 26d gets top spot for the combination of conciseness, surface and misdirection. Thanks, Dada, for an absolute delight.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3717 by Shabbo
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to the Toughie Week. I have been expecting a Shabbo for a couple of weeks and I reckon he has spent the time since his last Toughie fermenting extra deviousness. I found this fairly tricky, and technically is a “DNF” as I had to call in the cavalry to help with the complete parsing of 1a. There are some absolutely cracking clues, with 9a, 12a, 20d and 27a in particular standing out for me. However, my top spot goes to the hilarious 8d.
Thanks, Shabbo, for an absolute blast.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3713 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings! We have a high-quality offering today from Hudson, to whom many thanks. Perfectly pitched for a Tuesday, I feel, with a good few needing a bit of careful consideration and some less-than-common vocabulary, but nothing too tricky, although 1a had me digging around a bit. The clues are all scrupulously fair and there are many great surfaces. 1a, 3d, 5d, 9a, 14d and 19d were my particular favourites.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3709 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */2 – Enjoyment ***
Welcome to another Sunny Summer Inside Page Cryptic Crossword week. I know it says “Toughie” above, and in the paper, and on the Puzzles Page, but it isn’t. We have another TINO and I only raised the difficulty level by a quarter of a star because of a couple in the NE and for the parsing of 15d. That’s not to say the puzzle is in any way poor – it’s neatly and cleverly clued as ever for a Chalicea – it was just over far too soon for me, with the notable exception of 15d. Amongst my favourites were 3d, 7d, 16a, 19a, 20d, 22d and 29a. However, I’m giving my top prize to 15d.
Thanks to Chalicea for a very pleasant puzzle.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3705 by Gila
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Welcome to the Toughie Week! This is a rare Toughie appearance for Gila and is certainly the first chance I’ve had to Blog one of his puzzles and that always increases the nervousness, but I needn’t have worried. The two long anagrams at 1a and 1d made for a rapid start, and I was thinking about a fractional difficulty rating. Then I got bogged down on 19a and 20d, which took me longer than the rest of the puzzle, although neither clue was objectively all that tricky. Prizes go to 5d, 10d (I can never remember the spelling – now I won’t forget) and the aforesaid 20d, with 21d pinching the top spot by a nose.
The clues are all well put together, so no concerns on that score, but my minor local difficulty in the SE notwithstanding, for me, this would have sat better on the back page. This blurring of the between inside and back page difficulties seems to be a frequent occurrence recently and is something I think the Puzzles Team should address. But remind me I said that when a full-on four- or five-star puzzle lands on my watch on a quiet Tuesday morning.
Thanks to Gila for a pleasant start to a sunny Tuesday.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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