Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Osmosis is Michael Warburton. He is also Scorpion of the Independent and Aardvark of the Financial Times.
Toughie No 3428 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Thanks to Osmosis for a Friday-level Toughie which I enjoyed working through. I was slow to start but eventually gained a foothold in in the SW corner and proceeded slowly but steadily in a clockwise direction, finishing in the SE. Osmosis has given us a lot of clever wordplay and no anagrams.
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Toughie No 3412 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
Many thanks to Osmosis for what I found to be a pretty tricky puzzle with his usual clever wordplay and no anagrams. I had some difficulty in deciding what to underline for a few clues.
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Toughie No 3396 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
We can rely on Osmosis to give us a proper Toughie and I always enjoy the challenge he offers. There are no anagrams and no obvious gimmes (except 2d) here and each answer needs to be prised out. Thanks to the setter.
Toughie No 3380 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
We have a typical Osmosis puzzle today with clever definitions abounding. I had a hiccup in the SE corner and had to write over my first answer for 23a ‘titbits’ (which I thought worked quite well as a cryptic definition).
Thanks to Osmosis.
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Toughie No 3364 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
No anagrams or obscurities and some tricky wordplay – just what I like. Thanks to Osmosis.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3348 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A typically enjoyable puzzle from Osmosis which is perhaps slightly gentler than what he usually provides. The puzzle has zero anagrams, 25/26th of a pangram and a plentiful supply of abbreviations (I’m glad I’ve set up a shortcut for that word in Microsoft Word).
Thanks to Osmosis.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3340 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Our setter continues his practice of providing a ‘nearly pangram’ (there’s no K as far as I can see). He’s also given us an anagram-less puzzle – I particularly admire his ability to clue the four peripheral names without the need to resort to anagrams. I enjoyed this a lot – thanks to Osmosis.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3324 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
We know what to expect from Osmosis – clever wordplay, a dearth of anagrams and very nearly but not quite a pangram (only one letter missing this week as far as I can see). I enjoyed it a lot – thanks to our setter.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3316 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
Osmosis has given us a proper Toughie with a lot of clever wordplay (which I really enjoyed working through). This time his puzzle is a full pangram with no missing letters.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3308 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Osmosis has taken a leaf out of Beam’s book and given us a very enjoyable anagram-less puzzle. Thanks to him.
There’s a lot of cleverness on view in the grid. For a start we have (almost) a double pangram – there are no Hs but two of them are visible in the make-up of the grid. Also, we only have a single W but we do have a couple of spare Us (i.e. a double-U). Finally, and I don’t know how significant this is, several pairs of the higher scoring Scrabble letters appear separated by a single letter in the four quadrants (i.e. going clockwise from top-left Q?Q, X?X, Z?Z and J?J).
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