Toughie No 1129 by Elkamere
The Daily Politics
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Well, we asked Elkamere for a tougher Toughie, and here it is.
Category: Elkamere
Elkamere is Dean Mayer, who also sets for The Times, as Anax in The Independent and as Loroso in the FT
Toughie 1111
Toughie No 1111 for 1/1 by Elkamere
One By One
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
The New Year has brought a horrible day in North Devon – very dark, very wet and very windy – so it’s lucky that Elkamere has provided us with a ‘proper’ Toughie. I’m not sure if today’s puzzle number being very relevant to the 1st of the 1st is merely a happy chance or required a bit of manipulation (do we now know why there was a bonus Toughie on the Saturday before Christmas?). In either case Elkamere has taken full advantage – as well as the hidden sequences (brilliantly explained in 17d) there are several other allusions to the puzzle number and date.
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Toughie 1095
Toughie No 1095 by Elkamere
Northwest Territory
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Bearing in mind the tortuous puzzles that Elkamere in his various guises is capable of producing, I thought that this one was definitely on the gentler side. I was helped by having lived for many years in the North-West of England so that the two towns from this area were no problem for me.
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Toughie 1081
Toughie No 1081 by Elkamere
This is more like it!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
In some quarters Elkamere, as his alter ego Anax, produces ferocious puzzles and we have long complained that he has failed to live up to his reputation when setting in the Toughie series. Today we have one of his tougher puzzles, to which I have given the top enjoyment rating in spite of the unwanted Geography lesson in 3 down and the dreadful Spoonerism in 9 across.
Toughie 1063
Toughie No 1063 by Elkamere
Bruce Wobblebottom Drops In
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This is not one of Elkamere’s more difficult puzzles but I did enjoy it. I do applaud the fact that he is one of the (few?) setters to follow the Telegraph guidelines of having no more than six anagrams per crossword.
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Toughie 1048
Toughie No 1048 by Elkamere
It’s good to be back!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
I was undecided whether to make my comeback this week but then I discovered it was an Elkamere puzzle and that settled it. I’m glad I returned because it was a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle on which I made steady progress without ever feeling that I was totally on top of it
Toughie 1036
Toughie No 1036 by Elkamere
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
The gimme at 1 across proved not to be typical of the puzzle because I found it slow-going after that. I had trouble reconciling one or two definitions but thought the puzzle was an enjoyable challenge
Toughie 1023
Toughie No 1023 by Elkamere
Come, Friendly Bombs …
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We have a very enjoyable mid-week Toughie from Elkamere today with a good supply of his usual well-disguised wordplay. I’m not sure that I’ve fully understood 22a so any better explanations are welcome.
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Toughie 1008
Toughie No 1008 by Elkamere
Was it really 32 years ago?
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
Elkamere had apologised in advance for “one very obscure grid entry. It was forced by having to change an answer with unfortunate connotations but two of its checkers couldn’t be changed, resulting in almost zero alternatives”. From this I assumed that the two checkers must be thematic and so it proved although they were nothing to do with July 4th and Independence Day. I made heavier weather of the puzzle than perhaps I ought to have done but I found it to be a very enjoyable challenge
Toughie 1003
Toughie No 1003 by Elkamere
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
This is a proper Toughie and an enjoyable one. It took me some time to get started and after that my progress was steady rather than spectacular. Elkamere has apparently put a message on Facebook which a) apologises for an obscure word which was the result of a late change and b) reveals that there is a gentle theme. Well, a) I don’t know which answer he’s referring to because none of them seem to be that obscure and b) I can’t spot a theme (I did notice that column 14 has two words for sheep if you read upwards, but that doesn’t seem enough for a theme) – so I’m hoping that someone will reveal all. [See comment from Anax/Elkamere].
Continue reading “Toughie 1003”