Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Since the beginning of 2010, Wednesday’s regular setter is Jeremy Mutch who has visited the blog as Jay. During 2009, Jay set almost all the Thursday puzzles.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Weatherman set us a nice ‘start of the week’ Toughie with the possibility of learning some new words along the way
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. I found today’s puzzle to be the most challenging of the week so far – an excellent Wednesday workout. There are some very clever clue constructions: I especially liked 9a, once I’d worked out what was going on, and I thought 7d was ingenious. 25a might divide opinion, as it requires some cricketing general knowledge, but it makes it onto my podium as well. Many thanks to our setter.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Unusually for both a Wednesday and a Silvanus crossword, I found this to be a proper Toughie – my favourite Across clue was 28a and my favourite Down clue was 8d, as both of them mde me smile
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. For me, today’s puzzle was fairly gentle for a Wednesday – about the same level of difficulty as yesterday’s and Monday’s crosswords. One of the answers was a word I hadn’t come across before, but was fairly clued.
Amongst my favourite clues were 9a, 29a and 23d, but tying for first place are 22a (a lovely word) and 28a, which brought the biggest laugh of the day. Many thanks to our setter.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
A nice start of the week Toughie from Donnybrook, with a bit of a cozy mystery theme and, probably only if you are me, an earworm too!
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ***
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. For me, today’s crossword came between Monday’s and yesterday’s puzzle in terms of difficulty, with one or two clues needing some general knowledge, and a couple more where the parsing eluded me for a while. I counted five famous women, including three TV chefs and two world leaders. Amongst my favourite clues today were 19a, 28a and 20d. Many thanks to our setter.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
The SE corner of this Dada crossword turned it from being one of his Sunday puzzles to a 1* Toughie
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. Today’s puzzle was one of the hardest Wednesday puzzles that I can remember. I had a very sparse-looking grid after my first pass at the across clues, but fortunately the down clues came a bit more easily. There are some very smooth surfaces and a couple of well-disguised lurkers. It’s almost impossible to pick a favourite from so many fine clues, but the one that I enjoyed most was the plucky naturist in 17a. Many thanks to our setter.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. Today was a definite step up in difficulty from the previous two days, with some excellent misdirection and one or two clues requiring some general knowledge. My favourite is the cat-sitting Reverend in 1a. I also enjoyed the Quickie pun. Many thanks to our setter.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
A crossword that took me exactly the same time to solve as today’s 3* backpager; what turned it into a Toughie was the time I spent trying to completely parse 32a.
I will be interested to see whether other solvers are tempted to use that phrase regarding the ease of solving the clues, the use of which is not encouraged here on Big Dave’s Blog