Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Shamus is Philip Marlow [The fictional character Philip Marlowe, created by Raymond Chandler, lived in Shamus Town, a loosely disguised Los Angeles]. He sets puzzles as Hypnos in the Independent and Sleuth in the Financial Times. He also sets some of the questions on “Only Connect”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thought this was more back-page standard than Toughie standard. I’d never heard of 14 down but it was easy enough to work out from the wordplay and it took me a bit of thought to unravel the wordplay at 17 down. Otherwise I had no problems whatsoever.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
When Anax posted yesterday that there would be an Elkamere puzzle today I got the knives out and started sharpening them. Sadly I’ll have to put them away for another week at least. But we did get an enjoyable puzzle today which wasn’t too difficult once I’d established a bridgehead. I needed to think a bit more than usual to work out some of the wordplay.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This makes three consecutive Tuesday Toughies that I have enjoyed!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Shamus has given us a veritable Who’s Who of architects, engineers, outlaws, literary figures and a number of actors (only one Scot though on St. Andrews Day). I enjoyed it – how about you?
Please take the time to give your assessment of the puzzle by clicking on one of the stars below.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I worked steadily through this with the only hold-up being in the SE corner where I had to make up the answer to 25 across before I could get a handle on 23 down. An enjoyable solve that has a bit of an American flavour.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
A much harder puzzle than we usually get from Shamus – and all the better for it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from the Calder Valley. No, you haven’t done a Rip van Winkle and overslept. Bufo is away today and I’m covering. It’s nice to get one of the friendlier setters instead of the Friday Fiends and I’m quite a big fan of Shamus’ puzzles. However, I have to say I felt today’s challenge lacked the usual sparkle. I suspect it was probably because of 1 across, which I am not over keen on.
I also was trying to solve the puzzle online while being attended to by my nursing team and encountered considerable difficulty in doing so. It seems the tech problems are still there and I couldn’t save the puzzle to go back to it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This week I wasn’t on the setter’s wavelength and so struggled more than I should have done.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from the Calder Valley. No, you haven’t slipped into a time warp and lost a day! Bufo and I have done a swap for this week and I am reviewing the Thursday Toughie. It’s nice to be able to get to grips with Shamus who is a fine setter in all his incarnations and is a really nice guy to boot (not that you should ever boot a crossword setter!).
Not as challenging as a Friday puzzle in truth, but this contained a few little nuggets that made me think. Nice to see a trademark pangrammatic puzzle as well [Oh no it isn’t – see the bottom of the post BD]. Some excellent surface readings and clever definitions that made me smile. A very pleasant solve and thanks to Shamus for today’s challenge.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
For the second day in a row I’ve got a Shamus puzzle to review. I was convinced that this was going to be a pangram after getting 10a and 12a – it isn’t but it does have some really good clues and I enjoyed it.
Let us know what you liked or disliked in a comment, and please take the time to grade it for enjoyment by clicking on one of the stars below.