Toughie No 1409 by Busman
Easy Peasy
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment **
If you had been waiting at the bus stop for this Busman, then you would have been there since November 2013.… Continue reading
Category: Busman
Busman is Tom Johnson. He is also known as Doc of the Spectator, Didymus and Gozo and is co-editor of 1 Across Magazine
Toughie 1092
Toughie No 1092 by Busman
An easy ride
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Gazza for covering for me last week. I swear that I didn’t know it was to be an Excalibur puzzle when I declared my unavailability. I raced through today’s Busman puzzle apart from stalling briefly in the NW corner. I don’t know why I stalled because everything was fairly straightforward except for 1 across.
Toughie 1010
Toughie No 1010 by Busman
Don’t know much about history
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***
A couple of lazy anagram indicators (not and from), an obscure, for me, reference to ancient French literature and a technical flaw in 8 down, together with a grid which almost splits this into two separate puzzles, rather spoiled this otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
Toughie 968
Toughie No 968 by Busman
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
It’s typical, isn’t it? You wait ages for a Busman to turn up and then two come along in quick succession. This one provided the usual smooth comfortable ride with no hold-ups en route.
Toughie 952
Toughie No 952 by Busman
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
It’s about 2½ years since I last blogged a Busman toughie but I could still remember that Busman toughies are normally pleasant enough to do but not overly difficult. Nothing has changed. This is the grid that is effectively four mini-puzzles connected at the centre. There’s always a danger with this grid that one of the corners might prove intractable but that didn’t happen here. I did the top two corners with ease but then had to think a little bit harder about the bottom two.
Toughie 895
Toughie No 895 by Busman
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Busman’s recent puzzles have been a significant improvement on his earlier ones, and this is no exception. Perhaps a notch up from a standard back-page puzzle, but not too difficult.
Toughie 831
Toughie No 831 by Busman
Sweet doing nothing
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This pleasant Toughie came to life, and won an extra star, when I solved 1 down.
Toughie 795
Toughie No 795 by Busman
A Capital Puzzle
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
While not the hardest of puzzles, this is much better than the early Busman puzzles in the Toughie series and I enjoyed solving it. The handful of trickier answers are well clued.
Toughie 711
Toughie No 711 by Busman
The wheels on the bus go round and round
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Busman returns to the Toughie fold after a nine-month absence with an excellent puzzle. I have complained in the past about some of his puzzles being too easy, but this one hits the right level for a Tuesday puzzle.
Toughie 551
Toughie No 551 by Busman
An easy ride!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Busman’s puzzles are firmly at the easy end of the Toughie spectrum. This one has a decent grid – Busman complained on another site about my criticism (he must read the blog!) of the grid used for his previous Toughie.