Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
This Saturday’s puzzle from Cephas was one of those where everything fell into place so quickly (hence the 1* difficulty from me, although I do appreciate that others would rate it ** or even ***) that I didn’t have a chance to properly enjoy the wordplay at the time, so it was lucky for me that it was my turn to unravel the clues for the review.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
An enjoyable puzzle that was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it was going to be.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
I’m sure that I’m not the only one who had trouble accessing Telegraph Puzzles today. Please send your complaints to the Telegraph, not that they will take any notice. It’s difficult to understand how, in the 21st Century, a website cannot cope with a few hundred concurrent users – but then it seems to have been designed by people who know more about attractive layouts than they do about crosswords and computer systems.
After a long wait to access the puzzle, it came as somewhat of an anti-climax, especially as I solved today’s superb Elkamere Toughie first. My main complaint about today’s puzzle is that the surface readings of most of the clues were gobbledegook! Take 6 down, for example – “British woman with rock bun that’s littered battle site (11)”. Compare this with Tilsit’s superb competition-winning clue for THE EXIT – “Poor Candy’s no longer in Sex and the City, sadly it’s what she was shown! (3,4)” .
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Undeterred by the quartet of double unches I enjoyed this puzzle with its mini-theme of singers from the 1950s and 1960s. There are quite a few easy ones to give you a good start on solving the trickier clues.
All comments, as usual, are welcome and please take the time to click on one of the stars below to indicate your enjoyment rating.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hello from the Vega Baja on another beautiful morning!
Crosswords are always easier when solved in the morning over a cup of tea and piece of toast but this one must be a strong candidate for being the gentlest Wednesday puzzle since I started blogging, solved in less than half the time of last week’s! As is usual with a Jay puzzle there are 2 or 3 tricky clues to keep us on our toes and it’s not overloaded with anagrams, although there are enough to keep the anagram fans happy I think. Continue reading “DT 26621”
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Beam has given us another tough Toughie. I wish that all Toughies were at least as good as this one!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
There’s nothing too difficult in today’s puzzle but nothing that really stands out either. How did it grab you?
If you want to see an answer just highlight the space between the curly brackets under the relevant clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Happy mondays! (You’re twistin’ my melon man).
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Greetings from the Calder Valley. Apologies for the slight lateness due to dental and medical appointments. Why is it that when I sat in the Dentist’s waiting room, all I could think of was Pam Ayres and her wretched poem?
It’s the return of the wonderful Elgar today and he has provided us with a really enjoyable challenge that is not one of his harder ones, although 25 across held me up for a little while. Today’s Toughie features a collection of phrases obtained by putting the answers together.