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.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. Maybe it’s just me having my grumpy head on this morning but I don’t feel this is Jay at his entertaining best. A pleasant enough puzzle though and not too taxing. I couldn’t find an excuse for a racing car so this week you’ve got a couple of aircraft as the friend that’s staying with us at the moment is an aviation nut!
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Fortunately, this puzzle is not overly difficult as I was working “without a net” today. Problems with the DT web site caused major headaches (and no doubt loss of sleep) for Big Dave who was able to ship the puzzle across the Atlantic but not the completed grid. I find this to be a typical Jay puzzle, one that leans a bit toward the easier end of the scale.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. A real piece of Wednesday wizardry today! Some very clever clues, good surfaces and some great ‘penny drop’ moments! I’ve given 3* for difficulty but I’ll leave that up to you to comment on. I don’t actually know my solving time as I got into the website, clicked print and it chucked me out. 45 minutes later, when I finally got back in and the puzzle opened, the clock was already running from my first attempt!
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. Another excellent Wednesday puzzle today. On the whole it’s not too hard but it does have the usual 2 or 3 of a distinctly tricky nature. I’ve given it 2* for overall difficulty but if you want to disagree just put your own rating in a post and I’ll average them all as I did last week.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from the Vega Baja. Once more we have a Wednesday puzzle that’s not too difficult but with 2 or 3 clues to keep you on your toes! Possibly a bit heavy on clues involving anagrams (not my favourites as you probably know by now). Somehow I thought this was a bit ‘flat’ for a Jay puzzle but maybe that’s just me! As for star ratings – I’ve given 2* based on my personal solving time. If you post a comment please leave your own star rating and at about 1700BST I’ll average the lot and see what you guys think of it compared to me.
Continue reading “DT 26633”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Today we have the usual enjoyable offering from Jay – one that I thought tended toward the less difficult end of the scale.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hello from the Vega Baja on another beautiful morning!
Crosswords are always easier when solved in the morning over a cup of tea and piece of toast but this one must be a strong candidate for being the gentlest Wednesday puzzle since I started blogging, solved in less than half the time of last week’s! As is usual with a Jay puzzle there are 2 or 3 tricky clues to keep us on our toes and it’s not overloaded with anagrams, although there are enough to keep the anagram fans happy I think. Continue reading “DT 26621”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Hello all, the man from the Vega Baja is back after a couple of weeks off while the ‘other job’ intervened. I do wish clients wouldn’t want to travel on Wednesdays – I missed Jay’s 500th because of them!
Maybe it’s just me being a bit thick in the early hours of this morning but I thought this was way above Jay’s normal difficulty level and it came as a bit of a surprise to me on a Wednesday! Only 2 across clues done on first pass but the downs yielded enough to get going. Jay seems to be making a trademark of making his across clues the hard ones!
However, once all the pennies had dropped I realised I had really quite relished the challenge so definitely 4* for enjoyment. You can all disagree with my difficulty rating if you like but, based on my solving time compared with normal, 4* is what it is! (I reserve 5* for if I have to email other bloggers for help, not had to do that yet but this one came close on one clue!). As I said, maybe it’s just me . . .
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This is Jeremy Mutch’s 500th Telegraph Crossword.
It’s not often that a back-page setter is identified, but Jay, as we know him, is given a name check in today’s newspaper.
Pommers is busy preparing his apartment for a client who is arriving today, but will be back in the hot seat next week.
Once again Jay produces a not-too-difficult but nonetheless enjoyable puzzle.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
It is a pleasant enough offering today from Jay which I was able to solve reasonably quickly. Given that a few British expressions presented hurdles for me that would be absent for those of you in the UK, I expect you did even better.
Big Dave attached a note to the puzzle saying “With gold mentioned, the downs are almost Goldilocks and the three bears! ” And, with hair being mentioned in the across clues (10a), perhaps the theme is complete.