Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
A nice start of the week Toughie from Donnybrook, with a bit of a cozy mystery theme and, probably only if you are me, an earworm too!
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
This turned out to be tougher than I expected when I saw the setter’s name (shown correctly in the newspaper but originally on line showing the setter’s real name rather than his pseudonym) I think a fair amount of that can be attributed to working out what was going on in 3d/6a, especially as I hadn’t heard of the 9a 26a. One of those crosswords that was easier to explain then to solve
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
I thought this was a properly tough Toughie, for both a Wednesday and a Donnybrook
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Pretty straight(forward). 11a’s dramatist pushed my memory and 16a reminded me that I’ve never known how to spell his name. But both are generously clued and, as such, this was more of a skip than a jump. The floor is yours to tell me I’ve got the ratings absolutely spot-on yet again … or not!
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
An enjoyable themed Donnybrook proper Wednesday Toughie where it probably helped if, like me, you knew the required ‘stuff’
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty **+ – Enjoyment ****/*****
I thoroughly enjoyed this. There’s a spot of vocab – 27a was unknown to me – but it’s all very fairly clued. I initially suspected we were approaching *** territory as – despite getting lucky with 1a, having recently visited Hungary – I found the top a little bumpy. But the second half eases up dramatically. Whether that’s because it really is significantly easier in the South or whether I’d just refound my Donny legs by then, I’m not entirely sure. Certainly, there is NO science, which always makes me sob. And there is an extremely helpful and literally comic mini-theme. So **+ (as in not quite a 2.5) it is … for a Thursday. As ever, the floor is yours to agree disagree. PS … I should add (ta lots Sloop) that this is apparently Donnybrook’s 100th Toughie, as perhaps alluded to by the 11 ‘C’s dotted about the grid. Hats off, sir: a tremendous achievement.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
A Donnybrook with no linked clues? What’s the world coming to?! Nicely playful with a vaguely classical bent and great fun as always. All yours.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Toughie No 3605 by Donnybrook
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Welcome to the Toughie Week, one and all. Summer is on its way! Let’s just hope it isn’t travelling by train…
One of the benefits of the dark mornings is that the local tawny owls are heading home to roost at a relatively civilised hour, which fits with my normal walk with Lord Alfie. I’ve managed to see them twice at close quarters in the past week, and been alarmed by nearby, loud hooting.
I must confess I was expecting something rather more festive on the crossword front this morning. What we have is the complete opposite, and whilst I did not enjoy the gloomy (not to say apocalyptic) theme early in the day, this has grown on me as I’ve dug around a bit more. Not being very clued up on Saints’ Days, it was only when I started ferreting, that I discovered that 27th Dec is the feast day for St John the Divine. The theme is therefore suitably seasonal, in a cryptic sense entirely suited to the medium! The puzzle is very clever, and there are a couple of clues I thought were great. There are a few “gimmes” to get the ball rolling, and a few obscurities to significantly raise the difficulty level. 10a and 27a get honourable mentions, 14a sneakily gets into second, but my prize today goes to 26d by a fair distance.
Thanks to Donnybrook for the challenge and the learning opportunities.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.