Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****/*****
Bandit makes a welcome second appearance with yet more cleverness and truly immaculate surfaces. A dollop of history (huzzah!) and a smidgeon of science (boo!) but all very fairly clued. All yours.
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31191
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Thanks to today’s setter (I’ll leave you to guess his or her identity) for an entertaining puzzle.
Continue reading “DT 31191”
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
As usual, Django provides another very entertaining mid-week level Toughie. … Continue reading
Sunday Toughie No 215 by Beam
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 8th of March 2026
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ***/****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. I found today’s puzzle relatively gentle for a Wednesday: I was heading for my quickest solve of the week, until the app inexplicably threw all my answers away and I had to start again. There are several culinary references today, which left me feeling quite peckish. There is also an excellent Quickie pun. Amongst my favourite clues were 4a, 16a, 24a and 14d, but my top spot goes to the topical 4d. Many thanks to today’s setter.
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This puzzle was published on 8th March 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Kolkata. This Sunday, Dada set a slightly tough puzzle that I enjoyed solving. I have also written a full review of it for your kind perusal and valuable feedback. Continue reading “ST 3359 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3653 by Shabbo
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment *****
We have another excellent puzzle from Shabbo today. Absolutely perfect for a Tuesday, plenty to get stuck into, but nothing outrageously difficult or obscure. I thought it was going to be a struggle when I looked at 1a and that pesky question mark, and indeed it took quite a while before I managed to get a proper foothold in the North, the South going in much more easily. So definitely a Crossword of Two Halves for me, but still done in just a smidge over one-star time. The main difficulty factor came from Shabbo’s very clever surfaces and deceptions which I really enjoyed unpicking. Thanks, Shabbo, please keep spoiling us!
I have a host of favourites today -1a, 3d, 5d, 9a, 14d, 17d and 26a are all excellent. I’m going to need a bigger podium!
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa where the roller coaster weather continues. One day the temperature dips to minus 20 C at night and a day or two later hits a daytime high of plus 12 C. Fortunately, this week, we were not at the bottom of this cycle when the furnace maintenance man showed up for his annual inspection and promptly shut off the gas and slapped a red tag on the furnace (signifying it was unfit for use). There followed a scramble to install a new furnace. In that situation, one certainly is not in a strong position to shop around and bargain.
Today’s puzzle provides a gentle warmup for the undoubtedly more challenging solving exercises ahead.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Toughie No 3652 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Karla has upped the difficulty level a bit since his last Toughie but this is still pretty accessible and it’s very enjoyable. Many thanks to him.
Continue reading “Toughie 3652”
