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 ***
Giovanni seems to have forsworn (at least for the time being) his book of obscurities and has given us a very accessible puzzle.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This didn’t provide too many problems apart from 11a which I’d not heard of and which I needed to look up.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that this was more akin to the back-pagers that Giovanni used to give us on Fridays than his usual Toughies.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Happy New Year to one and all.
It was with some trepidation that I offered to swap Toughies with Gazza, and I was right. This is yet another back-page puzzle ramped up to Toughie level by the inclusion of a scattering of obscurities. Continue reading “Toughie 2359”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
There’s nothing too exciting in this puzzle and Giovanni has provided, as usual, a couple of words that I didn’t know.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
I guess there are no rules as to what distinguishes a Toughie from a back-page puzzle, but Giovanni seems to think that it means plumbing the depths of the BRB for obscure words and meanings. As far as I am concerned this makes for a very dull puzzle, others may have a different opinion. Continue reading “Toughie 2331”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment **
Not a lot of laughs today – Giovanni has given us mostly pretty straightforward clues but with a couple of obscure terms thrown in to ensure that we get full value from our copies of Chambers.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **/***
It wouldn’t be a Giovanni Toughie if it didn’t have a few terms I didn’t know but the only one which gave me any significant problems was 5d where I was thrown by the unusual spelling.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I made hard work of this one but I did enjoy the exercise (and only the sheaves of wheat were a totally new word for me).… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
No surprises here – you know what you are going to get with a Giovanni Toughie.… Continue reading