Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****/*****
I must admit 1a’s rather frosty “hello” threw me momentarily and I doubt I’ll be totally alone. There is certainly a smidgeon of jumping about here. But it’s worth it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****/*****
Very gentle, rather lovely. Unusually, the anagrams were the stand-outs for me today. 3d/1d is arguably the oddest-looking clue I’ve seen in a while … but I, for one, loved it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
A brisk and breezy start to the “Toughie” week from Donnybrook. There’s a splash of mild GK but nothing too exotic. Very playful, very light. Just the job for a Tuesday.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **+ – Enjoyment ***/****
I had/have absolutely no idea how to score this for difficulty. It all flew in – the right side in particular – thanks to very fair definitions. But there was quite a bit of reverse-parsing.
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
This was mostly gentle, which made the few pokes in the ribs all the more painful and surprising. Tackled, as I now realise all crosswords should be – on a deserted Turkish beach – this was a romp.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
I love MasterChef – happily back for its umpteenth season – almost as much as crosswords. But I have made a howling hash of both, from failing to clock The Iliad (the shame of it) last week to wilfully blowing the chance to appear on my favourite programme.
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment **/***
This proved a welcome distraction from the horrors of easyJet packing, ie working out how to cram a week’s worth of clobber into a pencil-case. Still, the flight was cheap as chips.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **/***
I always get Donnybrook and Giovanni (for obvious reasons) confused so I thought I’d best mug up before tackling this. And they are, of course, very different chaps indeed.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Good afternoon everyone from a wet and windy South Devon coast