Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Personally I thought this was a bit trickier than usual for a Monday morning, but thats probably me having a bad day. However it was still fun, especially 23a and 14d for example.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Greetings from the Calder Valley. After a lovely break in the Lake District (embarrassing photos safely locked away), it’s back to the wordface with this beast of a puzzle from Elgar. Thanks to Jon for stepping in and blogging last Friday’s wonderful Micawber puzzle so brilliantly.
There is a theme running through Elgar’s puzzle today related to a famous film dynasty and a couple of their most famous oeuvres, a musical connection to the films and a further musical theme. Value for money indeed from our esteemed setter. The clues are up to the usual high standard with a couple of Downs that take quite a bit of understanding.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Afternoon All! Suddenly this excellent festive puzzle on Christmas Day by Virgilius seems an awfully long way away as my nose is well and truly back on the grindstone!. All of the across clues can have the word CHRISTMAS either before or after them as described in 16a. I found this an excellent puzzle and was just right for the Christmas morning. Continue reading “ST 100003”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This was a game of two halves for me. Three-quarters of the grid went in fairly quickly, then I got held up in the NE corner where I was convinced that 9a was going to be a country and that the definition of 5d was “provided” – some nice bits of misdirection here. Thanks to Giovanni for a very enjoyable puzzle.
Let us know what you thought of it. If you want to reveal an answer just highlight the space between the brackets under the clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **– Enjoyment ***
Morning All! –What with the Christmas puzzle closing dates being spread out we have two Saturday puzzles to review and this is the second after Crypticsue’s (she will be continuing in the next two weeks with the Sundays). This was all back to normal from Cephas and I liked this one particularly for the good start at 1 Across
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Christmas Eve seems a long time ago but that is when we were treated to this special seasonally- themed puzzle from Rufus. I always enjoy one of his Monday puzzles as they are a good straightforward start to the crosswording week and so it was nice to have this extra Saturday treat, with just the right level of difficulty for a busy day. My only slight quibble would be that it does seem a little heavy on the double definitions.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This was a very entertaining puzzle which was not too difficult (although my slowness to solve 10 across did add a few minutes to my solving time). The theme was not difficult to spot. I had already solved two of the thematic answers and so had an idea what 6 down would be before I’d even looked at the clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Ray T makes his first appearance of 2012. Although tricky in places, this is solvable with perseverance and, as you can guess, I enjoyed it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This is a thoroughly enjoyable Toughie from Notabilis, worthy of the name Toughie but not so mind-blowing that you have to go and lie down in a darkened room after solving it. Let us know how you got on.
Notabilis often hides a Nina in his puzzles, but I can’t find anything today. Can you?
Please take the time to rate the puzzle by clicking on one of the stars below.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola and a Happy New Year to one and all. This is a good start to 2012 from the Wednesday Wizard with the usual mix of clue types and smooth surfaces. I thought for a while we were going to be in 1* territory but I stalled a bit on the last 3 or 4!