Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Weatherman set us a nice ‘start of the week’ Toughie with the possibility of learning some new words along the way
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. I found today’s puzzle to be the most challenging of the week so far – an excellent Wednesday workout. There are some very clever clue constructions: I especially liked 9a, once I’d worked out what was going on, and I thought 7d was ingenious. 25a might divide opinion, as it requires some cricketing general knowledge, but it makes it onto my podium as well. Many thanks to our setter.
Sunday Toughie No 245 by proXimal
Full Review by Gazza
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This puzzle was published on 04/10/26
proXimal has provided a very enjoyable Toughie this week.
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 245 (full review)”
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This puzzle was published on 4th October 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A nice, straightforward Sunday puzzle of Dada that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a full review of his puzzle for your kind perusal and important feedback. Continue reading “ST 3389 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3773 by Shabbo
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to another Toughie Week. Thanks to Gazza for filling in last week whilst I was toiling away in the Santa Clara area: Anna’s Hummingbird, Least and Elegant terns, Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitcher, White Pelican and Northern Harrier were amongst the incidental avian highlights.
We have an excellent puzzle from Shabbo today (and a rare example of being right with my morning “guess the setter” game). There’s nothing too difficult, but the puzzle is very well crafted with generally concise but smooth-surfaced clues. 17a, 20d, 24a and 27a (lovely word) all stood out for me, but my absolute favourite today was the wonderful 1d – perfect on all fronts. Thanks to Shabbo for another cracker!
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
Toughie No 3772 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Thanks to Sparks for a very enjoyable puzzle containing some cunning bits of misdirection.… Continue reading
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BD Rating - Difficulty **** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Continue reading "DT 31366"
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This puzzle was published on 3rd October 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A truly marvellous Saturday puzzle from NYDK that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback. Continue reading “DT 31361 (Full Review)”
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment **/***
Very relaxed for a Thursday Toughie, with a one-in-four anagram count adding further grease to the wheel. Is it just me or is the leap to a Friday Elgar growing wider by the week? ‘Twas alway a step-up – and rightly so – but the gap now seems interplanetary! The floor, as ever, is yours.
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BD Rating – Difficulty 2.5* – Enjoyment 4.5*
A very good Thursday morning from Winnipeg where, on Tuesday, I carried out my civic duty of (advanced) voting in this month’s municipal elections. Interestingly, at the municipal council level in Manitoba there are no political parties. While the political ‘leanings’ of candidates may be known, every council is an essentially non-partisan ‘committee’ with the mayor, as chair of the committee, being elected ‘municipality wide.’
For me, and I stress for me© (I have to say that for Terence), not a Dream Team Thursday, Silvanus was on Toughie duty yesterday and it is Kcit’s turn today. But, there is no doubt that this is the very entertaining work of the Master of Brevity. The usual one word clues and answers in the Quickie, and an appearance from the Queen, no sign of Ray T’s swEetheart, but there is a plain sweetheart in the back pager. Nothing to excite the latent third formers among us. Also, like Dada, Ray T still seems to be making occasional use of a personal thesaurus. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!