Toughie No 3601 by Zenas
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Greetings all, and welcome to the Toughie Week.
We have an enjoyable and not-too-difficult puzzle from Zenas today, with a clear theme, but without the associated potential headaches. There were a couple of new words for me (9a and 11d), but they were obtainable by simply following the clear instructions, so no complaints on that score. The “point” reference in 7d was also new. 1d and 2d get honourable mentions for the surface and imagery, and 8d is very clever, but 3d takes my prize today, despite being my last one in. I knew the answer as soon as the theme emerged, but it took a while for the penny to drop to the point where I was satisfied enough to write it in. Many thanks to Zenas for the puzzle, and inducing a bit of early-morning thirst!
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3477 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I think this could well be Zenas’ best yet.… Continue reading
Toughie No 3457 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***/****
We’ve got a Nina from Zenas today, which was mercifully easy to spot.… Continue reading
Toughie No 3441 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I truly didn’t/don’t know quite how to rate this for difficulty as I raced through the solve, thanks largely to very fair definitions, but the full parse took longer.… Continue reading
Toughie No 3385 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Pretty straightforward, I’d say. Some schoolboy French, a little GK and a smidgeon of vocab.… Continue reading
Toughie No 3329 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty **+ – Enjoyment ****/*****
This was excellent – Zenas’ best Toughie yet for my money.… Continue reading
Toughie No 3293 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
A warm welcome back to Zenas, who’s been surprisingly benevolent today, despite (very sparingly) borrowing Chalicea’s magic dictionary.
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Toughie No 3273 by Zenas
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
ALP is otherwise engaged today so we’ve done a swap this week and he’ll be here on Thursday. He’s missed out on blogging a very entertaining themed puzzle from Zenas – thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3253 by Zenas
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
I’m sure many of us have been wondering who Zenas is.
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