Category: Silvanus

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BD Rating  –  Difficulty ** –  Enjoyment ***

Hi all.  Another very pleasant puzzle from Silvanus to get the four-day week of Toughies underway.  And a four-day weekend to look forward to as well!  I’m not quite sure how to rate the difficulty because most of it yielded easily, but there were a couple of stragglers and one (17d) which stubbornly refused to budge: I stared at for a few minutes at the end, teased by the helpful-looking checking letters, before giving in to temptation and using the Chambers app.

Continue reading “Toughie 2211”

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BD Rating  –  Difficulty ** –  Enjoyment ****

Happy Chinese New Year!  Seven days since last Tuesday, it’s reassuring to find that today is a Tuesday, and all is as usual.  It’s less usual to see Silvanus in this slot – a first in fact, as his previous two Toughies were published later in the week – but I expect that could change.  I found it not overly tricky, but by no means an escaped back-pager.  Meanwhile, if I’d had any doubts about what enjoyment rating to give, the plaudits over on the back page blog have decided it!  Indeed, I noted an unusually high number of clues as favourites.

Continue reading “Toughie 2171”