Toughie No 754 by Elgar
Double Trouble!
Hints and tips by Tilsit and Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Greetings from the Calder Valley! The lovely Crypticsue was at a loose end today and kindly offered to tackle the Downs for me. You simply cannot refuse an offer like that so we have a review that’s in keeping with the theme of the puzzle. The Toughie Tormentor Supreme Elgar is back with a fun puzzle that is packed with an awful lot of thematic material. One of the hallmarks of a great puzzle is that it draws you in and this one did it in style. I personally zipped through the NE and SW corners and then hit a brick in the NW corner. Not helped by only one way in with the design of the grid, I then found it quite tough and needed a prod from my colleague to get in.
Crypticsue writes:- “Greetings from East Kent too! Don’t tell the boss (currently on holiday) that I was at a loose end – I enjoyed this puzzle so much first thing today that I welcomed the chance to have double the fun – I put dots by the clues I like and my newspaper is quite ‘spotty’ today. I was only really held up by parsing 1a but luckily Tilsit came to my rescue. Thanks to him and Elgar too.”