Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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This puzzle was published on 11th January 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A lovely and friendly puzzle from Dada this Sunday which I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a full review for your kind perusal and valuable feedback. Continue reading “ST 3351 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3621 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Hello and welcome to another Toughie week. I was expecting Chalicea to be on duty today, and I wasn’t disappointed. I found this a notch or two above her normal difficulty level – definitely not in Floughie territory – and thoroughly enjoyed having to dig around in slightly more obscure areas of vocabulary. I’m also pleased that I can use “synonym” in the hints, unlike last Tuesday. I have plenty of Smileys over the clues, notably 1a, 2a, 3d and 12a, but my favourite is the very elegant (if not too difficult) 4d. You’ll need your sticky-backed plastic or other type of adhesive for a few of the clues, but not too many need you to ask a responsible adult for help with scissors!
Thank you, Chalicea, for a fun start to the week!
Please let us know how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where we are currently experiencing fairly typical winter weather (daytime highs of -5C) but a cold snap is forecast for next weekend when the high temperature is slated to be -20C (BRRR!) – although Senf will probably tell me that’s warm.
Again this week we have a fairly gentle introductory puzzle from X-Type (presumably).
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 3620 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Sparks has provided today’s enjoyable Toughie. Thanks to him.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Continue reading “Toughie 3620”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31138
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***
Mr K is traveling at the moment and unable to blog so at very short notice I’ve set up the clues and answers and underlined the definitions. I’ve no time to write the hints so feel free to contribute hints for individual clues – I’ll incorporate good ones in the blog later.
Update: As Gazza is also blogging the Toughie, I have stepped in to provide some hurried hints for the backpager. I’m sure I’ve made lots of mistakes but if you point them out, please tell us what you thought of the crossword at the same time.
Difficult to tell at the speed at which I was solving, parsing and typing, but it did seem to be that there were a lot of repeated clue devices throughout
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This puzzle was published on 10th January 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A challenging yet entertaining Saturday puzzle from Twmbarlwm that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback. Continue reading “DT 31133 (Full Review)”
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Parsing 28a ***** – Enjoyment ***
Fairly straightforward Lego from Kcit today, bar one spot of parsing (28a). I had to dredge up some A-level vocab for 1a and 6d’s “amount of work” but the definitions largely jumped out. All told, a pretty brisk solve. Pondering over the mechanics of 28a easily took as long (for me, anyroad) as the entire puzzle! All yours.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A very good Thursday morning from Winnipeg. No doubt that the Master of Brevity is today’s setter, but not the first leg of a Dream Team Thursday, Kcit is on Toughie duty, just a sprinkling of the usual indicators between this puzzle and the Quickie are in evidence. I haven’t calculated average words per clue – I am assuming it is 5 ± a decimal point or two.
For me, etc© (I have to say that for Terence), an enjoyable puzzle which caused several pauses for thought for solving and parsing. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty */** – Enjoyment *****