Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Saturday’s puzzles alternate between Peter Chamberlain, who is also known as Cephas, and another setter
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Just when you thought it was safe to sit down and enjoy a Saturday Prize puzzle, along comes another one that you can finish while your egg is still boiling. Although I have issues with a few of the clues, this is not a bad puzzle – it’s just that I was disappointed after the improvements we have seen in recent Saturdays.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
After what was a turbulent week for the site in one way or another, I was somewhat apprehensive when tackling this puzzle. Although I had resolved to simply review the clues and analyse them without overall comments, I feel I cannot let pass what for me was a really enjoyable puzzle and the sort that I look for in a Saturday puzzle, so thank you to Cephas.
Feel free to have your say as usual and don’t forget the star rating system; simply click in the box with your award.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
It’s always worth checking the Saturday Prize puzzle to see if a pangram (all 26 letters of the alphabet) is in the offing. As soon as you spot two or three of the letters J, Q, V, X and Z then there is a good chance that, like today, the others may be lurking in the undergrowth. This was a pleasant puzzle and the improvements, over the year that we have been writing reviews, has been noticeable. As ever my complaint is that I, and many others, would prefer a more difficult puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
My first thought was that this was one of the better Saturday puzzles, but on closer analysis I found it a bit dull. Perhaps solving it on the journey home from the White Horse jolly had something to do with it!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *
A puzzle that stimulated a lot of debate on these boards last Saturday with a large number of people agreeing with Big Dave and myself that it was not one of the better puzzles and at the moment we seem to be going backwards instead of forwards in terms of quality on a Saturday. This week we have seen a very strong set of daily puzzles where the setters have worked hard to produce accessible and fair puzzles.
Contrary to popular belief, it gives me no pleasure to write about a puzzle in negative terms. I basically end up wondering that if that puzzle had been submitted to the other three main editors, would it have made their paper? The resounding answer is almost certainly not, for a variety of reasons, but the main one being on quality.
In every other paper, the Saturday puzle is the Showcase Puzzle of the week and there was stiff competition last weekend with a strong Araucaria puzzle in the Guardian and our very own Anax’s wonderful (and ferociously difficult) Independent, as well as a lovely Times puzzle. This limped in some way behind even the Financial Times puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This was more the sort of puzzle that I like to tackle on a Saturday with some good cluing and unusual words and Cephas certainly seems to have upped the ante on recent weeks. That said, the only clue I would have an issue with as unfair is probably the one that some will enjoy the most – 15 down. To me the answer is what I would describe as one step away from the definition, and that makes it too clever for its own good. Had the answer been “Sleep Music”, if such a thing existed, I would be raving about it, but the real answer “sheet music” is one step from that and in my book unfair.
However, I really liked 21 down, 6 down and 11 across. My Latin master at school, Gilbert Burrows used to expound upon unusual words and their origins and meanings and one of them was “peculator” meaning a sinner, derived from the Latin verb ‘pecco’, meaning to sin. It’s taken almost 40 years for the word to be needed, but there it was last Saturday. I am sure if GSB was doing the Telegraph puzzle on his cloud up above, he’d have had a wry smile.
Feel free to have your say on the puzzle below, and don’t forget to rate it with the star system.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
One of the better Saturday Prize puzzles, but with a handful of difficult answers.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
This was harder than the usual Saturday puzzle, but after a break last week we have another pangram (see below).
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A relatively straightforward Prize puzzle which, for once, is not a pangram.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
On balance a reasonable puzzle, in spite of a few not-very-cryptic clues.