Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Friday’s current setter is Don Manley who is also known as Giovanni, Duck, Pasquale, Quixote, and Bradman (all punningly connected with the name Don or Donald)
Toughie No 3612 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
There are a few gimmes here but in the main this required a fair bit of work. There are no anagrams (that’s fine by me) and I enjoyed the challenge a lot. Thanks to Osmosis.
Continue reading “Toughie 3612”
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BD Rating - Difficulty **** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Today I couldn’t fully parse one clue or get the Quickie pun, so not a great start to the year for me. Continue reading "DT 31126"
Toughie No 3608 by Elgar
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
I hope all our readers had an enjoyable day yesterday and are now enjoying their cold turkey.… Continue reading
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the final Friday puzzle of 2025. I struggled to get on wavelength today, likely the result of trying to hint alter an indulgent Christmas Day. Continue reading "DT 31120"
Toughie No 3604 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This is fairly gentle for a Friday Toughie but very enjoyable – thanks to Karla.
Continue reading “Toughie 3604”
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. I found today’s grid fill fairly straightforward, but there were a few clues where figuring out the parsing took some time . Continue reading "DT 31114"
Toughie No 3600 by Elgar
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
Elgar provides his usual mixture of a few gimmes and quite a lot of head-scratchers. I enjoyed battling through it. Thanks to him.
The clue which gave me most problems was 4d and I’m not totally convinced that I understand the ‘shepherd’ bit so do shout out if you have a better idea than mine. [Deansleigh61 has come to the rescue with the correct parsing – see his comment] Continue reading “Toughie 3600”
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Continue reading "DT 31108"
Toughie No 3596 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Sparks for an enjoyable puzzle.
When I was writing in the answers I noticed the number of high-scoring letters in Scrabble and thought that we might be heading for a triple pangram. Actually we seem to be a single Q short of the triple so only have a still impressive double pangram.
Continue reading “Toughie 3596”
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Today we have an enjoyable pangram. I have no idea who created it, so I hope they drop in later to claim it. Continue reading "DT 31102"