Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Elkamere is Dean Mayer, who also sets for The Times, as Anax in The Independent and as Loroso in the FT
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
In Toughie terms there is nothing too difficult here – I even managed to derive the French poem from the anagram fodder and most, but not all, of the checking letters.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Elkamere must be mellowing with age because his puzzles these days seem nowhere near as difficult as some of his early puzzles were. I don’t mind that because this was a very enjoyable puzzle. The clue for 5 down is provided by 8 other answers. I guessed the answer to 5 down from some of the checking letters and this enabled me to work out the two other answers used in the clue that I hadn’t yet got.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
There was a distinct football flavour to today’s Toughie. Apart from initially putting “husband” in at 6 down, there is no obvious reason why it took me as long as it did.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
When I did an initial scan through the across clues I didn’t get a single answer so I thought I was in for a stiff challenge. However, the down clues were much more amenable and it all got resolved in a reasonable time. All very enjoyable but not as tough as Elkamere’s previous puzzle (1207) of three weeks ago in my opinion – feel free to disagree (I already know someone who does!).
Continue reading “Toughie 1219”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
This took me some time and when I’d finished I wasn’t quite sure why. I managed to drag the name of the footballer up from the dark recesses but I imagine he’ll be unknown to many. There are some really good clues here so thanks to Elkamere for the challenge.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
How difficult you found this Toughie will probably depend on how well up you are on cricket and chess. I thought it was fairly gentle for an Elkamere but enjoyable as always. It’s also a pangram but once again I only twigged this after I’d finished solving it.
Continue reading “Toughie 1191”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The presence of 9a in this enjoyable puzzle makes me think that there must be some sort of theme, but the only possibility that I can see is the number of cooks mentioned in the clues, including the brilliant Peter. I’m sure that I’ll be put right if I’ve missed anything else.
Continue reading “Toughie 1175”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
My two weeks off certainly hasn’t sharpened me up because I made very hard work of this. Eventually I managed to fill in the grid in 4* difficulty time but then I had the task of working out all the wordplay. The time spent doing that certainly pushed me into 5* difficulty territory. But it was all pretty fair in the end and I enjoyed the challenge
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Thanks to Elkamere for a thoroughly enjoyable Toughie, with just the right level of difficulty for a Wednesday, IMHO. How did you get on?
Continue reading “Toughie 1151”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *
I’m sure this was a very difficult puzzle to put together, but for someone with my lack of interest in films it was totally wasted. If it hadn’t been for Google, I would never have finished it, and if I hadn’t been reviewing it, having seen the word film a dozen times, I wouldn’t have started it. The Telegraph usually avoid themed puzzles, a policy that I wish they had stuck to today.