Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Monday’s regular setter is Roger Squires, who is also known as Rufus
Hello. It’s Monday, and the start of a new crosswording week. Our children still aren’t back at school yet (one starts on Wednesday and t’other on Thursday). Maybe I should suggest they have a go at this crossword?
On Saturday we visited RHS Garden Harlow Carr in Harrogate, where we saw this impressive Kingfisher:
Hello. It’s the last day of August, and a Bank Holiday for those in England, Northern Ireland, or Wales — meaning I get to write this at a more relaxed pace, instead of the usual need to finish solving and blogging early, before working 9 to 5.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from my lakeside retreat near Ottawa where summer is gradually beginning to edge toward the wings and I am trying hard to enjoy what little is left before it leaves the stage entirely.
While I have successfully called the setters on a couple of recent puzzles, I don’t believe I’ll press my luck today. I think most solvers will find today’s offering is well-suited to the level of difficulty we expect to start the week.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Hello. Thank you to Falcon for covering this slot last week, when I was returning a hire car from our holiday in my usual ‘blogging time’ before work. If you want to know where we went, you should be able to triangulate our location from these distances (click to enlarge):
![a signpost pointing in lots of directions, with labels including ‘Christmas Isle 12790’, ‘Tahiti 11830’, ‘[Ne]w Zealand 12090’, ‘Botany Bay 13325’, and ‘Alaska 16990’](https://i0.wp.com/bigdave44.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Captain-Cook-signpost.jpg)
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from my lakeside retreat near Ottawa where we have had a beautiful sunny Sunday. No, you did not sleep through a whole week. I’m back this week while Smylers enjoys a holiday road trip with his family.
Today’s puzzle is perfectly pitched for a Monday although some solvers may be caught out by a few rather whimsical definitions. I’m wondering whether this might be an X-Type creation (as usual my predictions are subject to the caveat that they are usually wrong).
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where our mid-summer long weekend has proven to be, for the most part, a cloudy and rainy affair. This follows on the heels of July which, if I recall correctly, has been reported to be the second wettest on record. However, this paints a bit of a misleading impression of the month as most of the rain fell in the span of about 3 hours on a single day (July 1).
Today’s puzzle should serve as a gentle mental warmup to get the little grey cells prepared for the more challenging workouts likely to ensue as the week progresses. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that the puzzle may be the handiwork of Heron. Be aware though, that my track record at identifying setters is dismal, at best.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Hello. It was lovely to meet some of you in Birmingham on Saturday. Thank you to everybody who came, and especially those who bought me drinks that I didn’t manage to reciprocate. And commiserations to those who’d hoped to be there but couldn’t make it.
Here’s a character I found lazing around at New Street station, presumably tired out from celebrating their 75th birthday. Please see my album of photos from the day for who else was there.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where I and well over 5000 other homeowners are still cleaning up after the deluge on July 1. The bizarre aspect of the storm is the vastly different rainfall in various parts of the city. Some areas received more than 11 inches of rain in two or three hours while other areas received scarcely more than half an inch.
I found today’s puzzle a slight step up in difficulty from the usual standard for Monday but I may just have been overly tired from all my cleanup chores this week.
I’m afraid there are no illustrations this week. Every attempt at uploading an image was met with an error message from the server.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Hello. Welcome to Monday’s Telegraph Crossword, with hints and explanations below. Sorry, I’m running late today, so I’ll add some illustrations at lunchtime.
Before my next turn on the blogging rota we have this site’s Mid-Year Bash in Birmingham, and we’re all invited. (If you’re reading this, that includes you!) Hope to see some of you there.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa where we seem to have followed in the footsteps of those of you on the other side of the pond and have recently been enduring temperatures above 30 degrees C. On Canada Day, July 1, a storm dumped nearly 5 inches of rain on Ottawa in a couple of hours resulting in widespread flooding and the cancellation of all afternoon and evening festivities on our national holiday. Among the casualties was my basement which experienced a sewer backup. I now have a mountain of sewage contaminated material sitting on my front lawn awaiting pickup.
I won’t even attempt to guess the identity of today’s setter but, whoever it may be. has given us a gentle and fun introduction to the crossword solving week.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.