Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Notabilis has given us a thoroughly entertaining puzzle with a good sprinkling of “aha” moments. As always with Notabilis, there seem to be two stages involved in solving the puzzle – firstly finding the answers, and then for a number of clues working out why. Let me know in a comment if you enjoyed both processes as much as I did.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thoroughly enjoyed this Wednesday’s offering from Jay. A lovely mix of clues, anagrams, hidden words, all-in-ones and even one of those pesky every other letter ones which I am only just (even after all these years) managing to recognise. Thank you Jay for giving me such a nice puzzle to review. I hope you all agree with my opinion and don’t all rush for the 5d! Hard to pick favourite clues today but I will plump for 1d, 17d and 21d.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A gentle “Toughie”, as is usual from Messinae.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***– Enjoyment ***
We have a pleasant solve from Ray T today – possibly a shade easier than we’ve come to expect from him (but still not as easy as today’s Toughie!). Let us know what you think by leaving a comment, and please don’t forget to click on one of the stars at the bottom.
For those who need some answers, they are hidden between the brackets under each clue. Highlight the space between the brackets to reveal.
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Good Evening All! Prolixic has given us another very enjoyable puzzle for the NTSPP series. I found slightly tougher than his last but there is nothing really problematical that I can see having reviewed it a few weeks after test solving it. Continue reading “NTSPP – 023 (Review)”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***– Enjoyment ***
The usual gentle Monday morning runout, although I thought this was a bit trickier than usual in places, but there are plenty of clues to get you started.
The answers can be revealed by highlighting the space between the curly brackets.
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No theme this week!
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 23rd July.
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Welcome to the twenty third in our series of weekly puzzles.
This week we have another puzzle from Prolific Prolixic.
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 22nd July.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
There are times when, on seeing a setter’s name, you think to yourself “OK, I could be in for a few nasty surprises here”. When you see the Micawber tag you know you’re going to get fair, accurate clueing, and that was the case here. It was a pretty easy puzzle for me precisely because of that; solidly faithful clues and no head-scratching trying to work out wordplay after solving, although I was left with one minor quibble.
It’s by no means a spectacular puzzle, but it’s accurate and very well constructed – with the added bonus of several beautifully smooth (and indeed deceptive) surface readings, and at least one or two crafty little definitions thrown in for good measure. Not spectacular – but very high quality.