Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing the regular Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
On the tough side, this one – possibly because of 7 CDs, some a bit vague – but there were quite a few anagrams too, which should have been easy. 11A, 8D, 6D were the last answers to go in. Apologies for the late report – I’ve been busy looking after a young nephew this week.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
We thought we would ring a few changes, so today I have started to do the Thursday blog instead of the Friday one. Seems blogging Giovanni is a popular pastime. So instead of Gazza today you now have me. Expect some more changes shortly. Today’s crossword is an enjoyable effort that is not too taxing. However there are a couple of quibbles. Please feel free to leave comments.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This pleasant puzzle shouldn’t give those grey cells too much exercise this morning (but you can always do the Toughie!). A couple of minor issues will be covered in the review.
Following the accidental success of Monday’s placeholder posting, I have added this while still preparing the review – feel free to discuss via the comments.
You can add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This puzzle provides a good workout, though some will not like the large number of place names and girls’ names. As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space to reveal the answer if my hint proves inadequate!
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Time for another battle with the Monday Maestro. I have a feeling that those who find him to be extremely easy might have had a surprise today. There were one or two clues that caused me to scratch the old noggin and raise a few sparks. Overall quite a nice balance of clues, where some weeks we seem to have a preponderance of one type or another.
As usual, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and welcome your contributions. A couple of things to remember, first time posters take a little longer to appear purely as they are vetted just to make sure they are not spammers being a pain in the rectum. There’s also a star rating facilitiy at the end of the blog and you can click on that to show your rating the puzzle. It’s purely for fun.
Oh, and for those who haven’t seen this in today’s papers!
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Beware of what you ask for. After last Friday’s gentle stroll, today’s crossword is certainly not a walk in the park. Today we have a much more difficult crossword, although that does not detract from its enjoyment. (Even if the grid is a bit cornery).
Please take some time to enjoy the excellent surface readings.
As usual feel free to leave your comments.
Continue reading “DT 26013”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
A puzzle of moderate difficulty and the usual Saturday mixed bag of clues …
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I found this puzzle very enjoyable with some excellent surface readings. Please let us know what you thought of it, via a comment, and cast a vote by clicking on one of the stars at the bottom.
As usual, the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets, so that you can just reveal an answer that you need, by selecting the white space, without accidentally seeing other answers.
Continue reading “DT 26012”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This is an easy puzzle, which should leave you plenty of time to tackle today’s Toughie from Cephas, our regular Saturday setter. This week there is no surfeit of cryptic definitions, but you do find yourself expecting that if it isn’t an anagram then it might be a hidden word!
You can add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Gazza for stepping in at short notice yesterday when I remembered that I had a hospital appointment and realised that even I was mortal and couldn’t cram 15 hours of things to do into 45 minutes.
Quite an entertaining puzzle today and a bit of a challenge. The clues were well-written and nicely misleading, and it took me a little longer than I would have liked. There was nothing too taxing in there but a few clues just required a bit more thought than on a Monday. Mostly word-sum types clue, as well.
As usual, your comments are welcomed at the end of the blog, and you can rate the puzzle by clicking on the star system with your rating, It is a bit of fun and reflects how people are feeling at that point. Newer posters should note that first posts take a little while to appear while they are moderated, just to prevent spammers from gumming up the works.