Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Giovanni is Don Manley, who is also known as Duck, Pasquale, Quixote, and Bradman (all punningly connected with the name Don or Donald), and is the current Friday setter
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Today we have a couple of clues that use bakery-related slang terms for money. I finished this more quickly than today’s regular cryptic, but thoroughly enjoyed both of them.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
There were several words which were new to me in this puzzle, but it’s by Giovanni so all the wordplay is very fair and the surface readings are good. Let us know how you found it, and please don’t forget to vote by clicking on one of the stars below.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Apologies for the lateness, a variety of reasons, I’m afraid.
A Curate’s Egg of a puzzle today with a fair smattering of new from our Friday Favourite. There were some clues I liked, but one or two that I thought not up his usual high standard. I’m not keen on the grid, as there’s only one way into each corner.
As usual, you can have your say after the blog, and you can mark the puzzle using our star system.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
You need to be of a certain age to remember some of the references in this puzzle. We have a U.S. statesman from the 1960s and a cricketer who played his last test match in 1961. This certainly qualified as a Toughie in terms of difficulty, but it was a bit disappointing for a Giovanni, with a scarcity of “Aha” moments and some less than smooth surface readings.
As always we like to hear your views – please take the time to leave a comment.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Giovanni has given us a really good workout today. I found it enjoyable but tricky, being held up for some time in the top left-hand corner. There are a number of homophones, at least one of which (18a) is a bit dodgy but very amusing.
Your comments, on the puzzle, the review or anything else, are very welcome.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *
This is the worst Giovanni puzzle that I can remember.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Sorry for the delay, but it’s been a busy day today. I like my Toughies to be tough and this one certainly was. While you may not like some of the constructs, all of the clues were, as ever with Giovanni, fair.
(or If you think you have 26ac, you probably haven’t!)
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
A solid start to the last week of Toughies for 2009 with Giovanni giving us his usual elegant style to test us. A nice mixture of the teasingly simple through to one clue whose answer I was almost convinced that Clued Up had got wrong until I used TEA and found an alternative that I had not heard of before. Indeed, Had I not had Clued Up today, I would have gone away thinking that I had the right answer. More of that in a while.
As usual, we would love to hear your thoughts, so let us have them by using the form at the end of the blog. Newer posters should note that it can take a little while for first posts to appear as they are always moderated to prevent spammers. You can also rate the puzzle using our star system, which I would venture is a little more accurate that the Clued Up system, as I haven’t managed to fathom theirs out yet.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
I will be returning to the Tuesday Toughie blog for a while as Libellule is currently unable to devote enough time to do this and the Thursday daily cryptic – he is, I believe, the only one of us blogging crosswords on the day of publication that also holds down a full-time job!
I just loved this puzzle from Giovanni, and have “borrowed” from Anax the idea of highlighting my favourite clues in blue. One of the advantages of reviewing a puzzle is precisely that – you re-view and get a chance to enjoy it all over again. OK, there were one or two minor niggles, but as I explained last week the object of doing a puzzle is to enjoy solving it, and this one achieved precisely that.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
If you enjoy doing the Friday normal cryptic, then I recommend you try this one. Its a bit more difficult than what you would normally find on a Friday, but it is an accessible Toughie. There is enough to get you started, and then you can enjoy working through the rest of this well crafted crossword.
As usual if you wish to leave comments, please do so. If you are looking for the answers and can’t work out what the answer is from the hint or explanation, then highlight the letters inside the curly brackets.