Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
A chilly, wet and gloomy morning makes this a perfect day to stay indoors and do battle with what I thought was a proper, almost 5* Toughie. Continue reading “Toughie 3778”
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
A crossword that took me exactly the same time to solve as today’s 3* backpager; what turned it into a Toughie was the time I spent trying to completely parse 32a.
I will be interested to see whether other solvers are tempted to use that phrase regarding the ease of solving the clues, the use of which is not encouraged here on Big Dave’s Blog
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
An excellent mid-week Toughie
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Prime has set us a Toughie which I thought was just right for a Wednesday apart from the age it took me to parse 1d which added an extra star to the difficulty rating
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty <* – Enjoyment ****
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***/****
This seemed quite tricky mid-solve, so I was surprised to look at the clock afterwards – it was actually pretty speedy. I think such contradiction was largely because it took me a moment to find a way in and most of the shorts needed at least one crosser to crack. There is a smidgeon of vocab (12a) and a dollop of religion (12d, etc) but nothing outlandish and all fairly clued. Over to you. Continue reading “Toughie 3667”
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Toughie No 3594 by Prime
Hints and tips by Shabbo
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning, fellow puzzlers. It’s me again on Wednesday Toughie duty, stepping in for ALP/CS.
Pleasant Prime puzzle, perfectly pitched, posing particularly proficient problems. 17a was a new word for me, but it is fairly clued. The Barking dialect at 24a and the famous mother-in-law at 5d are my joint favourites.
In the blog below, the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED and the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the “Click Here” buttons. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on and what you thought of the puzzle.
Many thanks to Prime and to the DT Crossword Team.