Toughie No 655 by Beam
A Ray of Sunshine
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
It’s my lucky day again – a Toughie from one of my favourite setters.
Category: Beam
Beam is Ray Terrell, who also sets regular cryptics which are usually published on Thursdays
Toughie 639
Toughie No 639 by Beam
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Beam, aka Ray T, is one of the setters whose puzzles I always look forward to solving. This one was about the same difficulty as some of his back-page puzzles, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Toughie 621
Toughie No 621 by Beam
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
This was a real Toughie. I struggled with it for quite some time and think it almost merits 4½ stars for difficulty. The answers are all single words and that always makes life harder for the solver. Personally I’d prefer some multiword answers but that is not Beam’s style.
Toughie 607
Toughie No 607 by Beam
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Beam has given us another tough Toughie. I wish that all Toughies were at least as good as this one!
Toughie 591
Toughie No 591 by Beam
A tale of crooks and child molesters!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
After sailing through three-quarters of this puzzle, I found myself stuck in the southwest corner, until several pennies dropped one after the other. Beam never ceases to challenge and amuse me at the same time. My runaway favourite clue is 27 across.
Toughie 571
Toughie No 571 by Beam
A bit of “How’s your Father”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This great puzzle from Beam is laced with innuendo. Tuesday has not been a good day for Toughies recently, but this has been the best since Beam’s last offering four weeks ago.
Toughie 555
Toughie No 555 by Beam
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Once again we have a Beam puzzle with cleverly concealed definitions and synonyms which stretch the imagination. This was a pleasure to solve, which is more than I can say for the previous couple of Tuesday Toughies.
Toughie 540
Toughie No 540 by Beam
A Game of Two Halves
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I thought that the across clues today were pretty straightforward, but some of the down ones presented more of a problem. But all in all it’s a good puzzle with some excellent clues.
Let us know your views in a comment and please remember to cast your vote by clicking on one of the stars at the bottom.
Toughie 507
Toughie No 507 by Beam
A lesson in English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Beam (aka Ray T) lives in Paris, where he teaches the finer points of the English language to French journalists. This is evident in the two long answers in today’s excellent puzzle.
Toughie 487
Toughie No 487 by Beam
The Dark Side of the Butt!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Beam has provided us with a very entertaining puzzle today, with a number of near-the-knuckle laughs along the way.