Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing Sunday Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *****
Posting in a bit of haste as now much busier than I used to be, so no link to Shenandoah for 25A. If you imagine the same introduction as most of the ones for the last year, you won’t be wrong! I liked the smell of the sea at the end of the Acrosses.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** –Enjoyment *****
Another very enjoyable Sunday puzzle – I liked the 200-year musical leap in time between the two long across clue/answer combos
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Here’s a puzzle using one of those “natural” 15×15 grids with words of 5, 7, and 9 letters. These have the potential to include some very familiar content, but although there are a few old favourite answers here, there are plenty of less frequent visitors to the grid too, and enough difficulty to make it a relatively tricky Sunday Telegraph puzzle for me, even with 3 hidden word clues.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *****
More high class fun. It’s a bit dull on this slot – you never get anything to moan about …
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *****
A puzzle that I found very easy , finishing in the kind of time I can’t quite seem to manage for the Times puzzles any more. I enjoyed 3D in particular, as a lover of the rich orchestral music of “first-class second-rate composer” Richard Strauss. I also enjoyed the reference to slightly more recent music at 23A.
Apologies for this being late – there’s lots going on at the Times xwd website at the moment, including leaderboards done rather better than at the Telegraph.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Nothing written next to this one on the day – let’s see what emerges as I write up the explanations. As ever: lots of classy clues, including three special hidden words. And a possible indication that BG has changed his mind about a minor cruciverbal controversy.
A quick plug for a bit of my own work: my second Church Times puzzle, edited by Don Manley, is available here. 14 of the 28 clues are my own, the rest are changed, anything from slightly to completely.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Not much obvious high drama in the clues this week, though three hidden words is a bit unusual. Just (just?) the usual impeccable clues, and a very kind grid for the solver. The use of two commercial names among the clues and answers is a bit unusual for a British crossword, though the Americans are much less shy about this. Memorable mistake by a famous solver in the final stages of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament: Black and white killer [ O??? ] = OREO (correct answer: ORCA).
There are also some clever uses of words with common meanings in cryptic clues, playing other roles this time, other stuff to give the blogger more to write about than he initially expected, and the chance to link to a bit of music.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
I found this puzzle pretty difficult for a Sunday, or at least I got badly stuck on two crossing pairs – 1A/4D, and 25A/21D. But I enjoyed the chance to use a picture taken on my holiday, which I was already intending to send to the setter. The difficulty meant that while I was still trying to speed-solve, I entered 3 answers without fully understanding the wordplay – 15A, 17A, 13D.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ***
Although I have been solving the daily cryptics for many years, I am a late convert to the Sunday Prize Puzzle, enjoy them greatly and can’t think why I didn’t do them before. As Peter Biddlecombe is on holiday, I have the pleasure of reviewing this week’s offering from Virgilius. I have given this crossword 3.5* for difficulty because of the struggle I had with a few of the clues and the fact that my total solving time was two-thirds longer than usual, which I don’t think was entirely due to blogger’s nerves or my attempts to overcomplicate the clues and thus be unable to see the solution! Thanks to Virgilius for the Sunday brain stretching. Peter will be back on duty next week and I can return to my usual routine – solving the Sunday puzzle while cooking the lunch!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
A puzzle solved when I got home from the rigours of the toughest Times Crossword Championship final I can remember. However, now that I’ve looked up the results from 2000, which I remember as my best final in both results and speed terms, it turns out that my winning average time was just over 8 minutes a puzzle. Mark Goodliffe’s winning time on Sunday equated to 8:22 a puzzle.