Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
It’s my lucky day – I get a terrific puzzle from my favourite Telegraph setter to review. There are some brilliant clues and one (that’s probably brilliant!) which I can’t fully understand – so your assistance on this would be very welcome. Additionally, please feel free to leave a comment telling us what you liked or didn’t like about the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Other setters may be easier, harder, more elegant, more devious but Jay continues to provide one of the best puzzles of the week.
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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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
What could have been an entertaining puzzle was, for me at least, spoiled by some of the constructs. I was particularly unhappy with wasting a lot of time on 13 across, only to find out that you had to solve one homophone before tackling the next.
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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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that today’s puzzle was less tricky than most Shamus puzzles (I assume that it’s by Shamus – apologies if I’ve got that wrong), but as we’ve said before a puzzle doesn’t have to be very difficult to be entertaining. It does have rather a lot of place names (three in England and one in South America) which I know that some people won’t like – let us know what you think of all the place names and of the puzzle generally with a comment!
The answer to each clue is concealed between the brackets under it – just drag your cursor through the space between the brackets if you want to reveal it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This week I was held by a couple of the long answers for a few more moments than usual. Take 8d for instance. Though these blocks are used in the building industry in India, they are not known by that term. At least, I have not heard. In 28a, I had to disabuse my mind that William = Tell before the answer stuck to me. As for 7d, well, we in India too have bond, and, oh yes, bind (“Gita, what’s it? Wait a minute…”) but it may not be band, it is ‘thali’ which only women wear round their neck to signify that they are married and the man has nothing to show! In 12d, I had to decide that the word outside is CHINAS, not CHINA.
I enjoyed solving this crossword despite a couple of clues that we have seen in the same or almost similar form (e.g., 13d, 16d) in the past.
I liked 29a and 26d as they are very smooth in surface reading.
A quibble: 14a reads “Listen to a number cheer”. In real life, would grammar require the use of ‘cheering’ ?
If you want the answer to any clue to show up, highlight the white space within any the curly brackets under the relevant clue.
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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Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 26th March.
Continue reading “ST 2528 – Hints”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I found this puzzle to be entertaining in spite of the use of some difficult constructs. My advice to Radler would be twofold. First, try to avoid the use of words that are not in common usage. Second, look very carefully at the solvers ability to progress from the synonym to the answer.
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Welcome to the sixth in our series of weekly puzzles.
This is the second by Radler – another of our rising stars.
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Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 25th March.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *****
Sorry for lateness of this report – lost copy and had to resolve. The usual elegant but not too difficult Sunday outing, with some special bits to note.