Toughie No 3685 by Beam
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
We live in interesting and unusual times, that much is now clear, if it wasn’t already: Beam on a Tuesday? Whatever next? Anyway, whatever cosmic upheaval has brought this about, I am delighted that I have finally had the chance to blog one of his puzzles. Beam, initially in his back-page guise, and then in Toughie form, was the first setter whose individual style and craft I really started to understand and appreciate. Of course, that was back in the day when he was more verbose, with as many as 7 or 8 words a clue…
Having been working through backlog of Sunday Toughies, some featuring Beam in full-on Tough Toughie mode, I was worried about what I might face here, but he has been kind, whilst still giving us a challenge – notably parsing 5d, which was much harder than the solving part, and almost worth an extra difficulty star alone. All of the usual suspects are there (royalty, initials, sweethearts), just the innuendo lacking to spare my blushes at breakfast. Amongst many fine clues, I’m giving my prizes to 4d, 9d, 14d, 29a and 30a. Overall, another masterpiece in concise complexity! Thank you, Beam, for another excellent puzzle.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.