Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Monday’s regular setter is Roger Squires, who is also known as Rufus
Welcome to the Telegraph crossword for Bank Holiday Monday. I treated myself to a lie-in, not having to solve and blog before starting work, and perhaps shouldn’t have done: this took me longer to solve than any other crossword I’ve hinted! How did you get on?
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa, where spring has finally arrived – about a month later than the calendar would have one believe. In Canada, spring is Stanley Cup Playoffs season, the competition for the championship of the National Hockey League. I can now well empathize with those on the blog who have lately been bemoaning the fate of their favourite football clubs. The hockey team I root for, the Ottawa Senators, had a dismal start to the season falling to near the bottom of the league. The second half of the season was the polar opposite – the team had one of the best (if not the best) records in the league allowing them to barely squeak into the playoffs. However, that was the end of the fairy tale season and they fell in four straight games in round one.
Today’s puzzle provided a fairly gentle mental workout to prepare us for the more demanding offerings we will undoubtedly encounter later in the week. UK solvers likely had a bit of an edge on me as it took a few extra minutes to sort out the character from the British children’s novel with whom I was not familiar. As for the setter, the Monday rotation appears to be Weatherman twice a month (on Smyler’s shift) with Heron once a month and the remaining position (today) filled by a mystery setter or setters.
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.
Good morning, and welcome to Monday’s crossword. I think most will find this easier than the past couple of Mondays’. I actually finished this quickly, and those who rate difficulty purely on time may categorize this as just ★. But after my first pass there were still left many gaps in the grid, and a few of the clues have quite involved wordplay, so I think this is less suitable for a complete beginner than the puzzles I rate as ★, and ★★ it is.
Spouse and I are just back from a long weekend away to celebrate my birthday, which was a square number this year. See these pictues to work out where we went:
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where it is finally beginning to feel like spring with day time temperatures reaching the mid to high teens and overnight lows, for the most part, staying above the freezing point.
Perhaps I’m having an off day but I found this puzzle considerably more difficult than I am accustomed to on Monday. The east went in fairly smoothly though not quickly but I struggled in the west.
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.
Happy Easter from Ilkley, where for once the sunrise was actually visible at our Easter Day Son-Rise service by the Cow & Calf rocks:
(Click to enlarge.)
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where the temperature roller coaster is heading upwards. Temperatures that have recently been in the neighbourhood of -10 C are forecast to hit +15 C today.
Today’s puzzle, though, does not depart from the recent trend of gentle introductions to the cruciverbal 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. I’d claim it’s always a good time to visit Ilkley, but now’s a particularly good time, with it looking like this:
(Click to enlarge.)
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa where the roller coaster weather continues. One day the temperature dips to minus 20 C at night and a day or two later hits a daytime high of plus 12 C. Fortunately, this week, we were not at the bottom of this cycle when the furnace maintenance man showed up for his annual inspection and promptly shut off the gas and slapped a red tag on the furnace (signifying it was unfit for use). There followed a scramble to install a new furnace. In that situation, one certainly is not in a strong position to shop around and bargain.
Today’s puzzle provides a gentle warmup for the undoubtedly more challenging solving exercises ahead.
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 from Ilkley. Here are some photos from a day trip this weekend — where did we go? (People from Yorkshire, please let others answer first!)
I liked all the clues in today’s Telegraph cryptic crossword. I got fewer answers on the first pass than I often do on Mondays, so I’ve rated it ★★ rather than ★ for difficulty. But several of the ones I skipped were those I’d successfully identified as anagrams, which I find hard to work out until I have crossing letters; if you’re somebody who can solve anagrams straight away, you may find it easier than I did.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa where, following a brief spell where the daytime temperatures got above the freezing point, we are about to return to more frigid temperatures. It’s definitely a long way from spring here. This idea of spring starting on March 1st that Senf mentioned yesterday must be an invention of British meteorologists. I’ve never encountered it on this side of the pond.
I will not hazard a guess as to today’s setter. Smylers figures that at least four setters may be sharing Monday duties. Unless a setter displays characteristics as distinctive as those of RayT, I am hopeless at identifying them.
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.