Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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The next Sloggers and Betters get-together will be held in Cheltenham on Saturday August 6th starting at 1.00 pm at the Midland Hotel, 247 Gloucester Road, Cheltenham, GL51 8NW. The venue is right next to Cheltenham Spa station.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This is not one of Rufus’ best crosswords…
I also see that the Telegraph puzzles site continues to be a problem. If you are having trouble accessing it try a little later, and keep trying – eventually you should be able to log on.
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As is unusual for the weekend prize crosswords, I (and not Big Dave) will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. Big Dave’s is not suffering the excesses of yesterday’s Sloggers and Betters Midland’s 2 meeting but is having troubles with his laptop at the moment.
Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I test-solved this crossword back in the April heat wave, but according to my notes at the time, I solved it in a deckchair in the hot sunny garden, found the top easier than the bottom and, with only a couple of queries, enjoyed the crossword very much.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Welcome to the latest in our series of weekly puzzles.
This week we have another puzzle from our very own Prolixic.
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Tilsit and I were going to share the honours today with me doing the across hints and him the downs, but it seems that he prefers the company of the pretty nurses at the hospital, so I’ve done his bit as well!
As is usual with an Elgar puzzle, there are too many excellent clues to be able to single out favourites.
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Thank you once again to Virgilius for the usual splendid Sunday challenge,  which didn’t take me long to solve but was, as we have come to expect,  very enjoyable.  My favourite clue, 13a, is worth 5* on its own.  I also really liked the linking of the down clues 1 and 22; 2 and 19; 6 and 16;  and 7 and 21.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We have the usual entertaining Friday puzzle from Giovanni. Let us know how you got on with it (and do have a go at the Quickie pun – it’s very good).
If you want to see an answer just highlight the space between the brackets under the relevant clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Morning All!. I think that everyone agreed on the day that this was a fairly straightforward puzzle from Cephas but I still enjoyed that solve and also the review. For those wondering about the Chinese influence in this review may I draw your attention to the correspondence below regarding my review of DT 26437 with reference to 21a in that puzzle!