Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Breaking a run of Elgar and Excalibur on alternate Fridays, we have this excellent puzzle from Shamus. I liked the artistic flavour and really enjoyed this one.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Not too difficult, but not too easy either. A nice mixture of clues varying in complexity. A good crossword for polishing your skills and typical for a Friday.
Continue reading “DT 25977”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Peter Biddlecombe is taking a well-deserved break this week, but will be back next week.
Saturday puzzles recently have not deserved the accolade of prize puzzles, but this one was a lot better. I had a few minor grumbles,which are outlined in the review.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *** – (CluedUp Site Difficulty **************)
Very irritating today. Not the puzzle, but the blooming CluedUp website. I logged in to do the puzzle and finished it, and was chugging along writing the blog. Funnily enough at the time I thought that it didn’t feel like a Messinae puzzle. Visited this lovely site and then saw Gazza’s blog on the same puzzle! Checked in to Clued-Up again and got a different puzzle!
So we start again, a bit late! This was a really nice puzzle to solve (unlike his current fiendish Listener puzzle, which is a s*d!) and contains one of the best clues I have seen in a while. However I think there’s a problem with one of the other clues.
Off we go, let me have your thoughts below.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
When I solved this puzzle I was not overly impressed with it, but writing the review has made me appreciate some of the individual clues more, and I ended up quite liking it.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space to reveal them.
Continue reading “DT 25976”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Once again we have a challenging Toughie from Osmosis with some pretty complicated wordplay. With some of the clues I felt like I’d taken a piece of equipment apart and put it back together, only to find that I’d got a bit left over! An extraordinary number of the clues involve a reversal of some or all of the letters. I really enjoyed battling with this one.
Continue reading “Toughie 177”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
I found this to be a disapppointing puzzle. There was little of merit, and the overuse of initial and final letter constructs that failed to contribute to the surface reading was irritating.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Tuesday seems to be a good day to tackle your first Toughie. I sailed through this one, but enjoyed doing it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
An enjoyable, but not too taxing, puzzle with all the answers being single words. We have both a girl’s name and a city, so there may be some criticism from those who do not like the use of proper nouns – over to you!
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space inside them to reveal all.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Dateline: Hebden Bridge : Monday : 00:45
After a very pleasant birthday Sunday, I arrived home just after midnight full of bonhomie (sadly not alcohol) and at one with the world. So I logged on to Clued Up and, armed with a cup of coffee and Tracy Chapman on my speakers, set about the new challenge from our Monday Maestro.
Some minutes later I am waiting for Clued Up to decide whether I have completed the puzzle, although I am fairly certain I have it correct. Has my good humour survived? Let’s take a stroll round Across Street and Down Lane and see.
I have vented my spleen about the Telegraph Grids recently, so I shall say little about today’s abomination. There’s the usual smattering of cryptic definitions, and the usual odd one that stetches a point. I am sure I have seen the exact same clue at 5 down in a puzzle recently, so that is where I start.