Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Another good Saturday cryptic from our mystery setter this week. Took a few minutes for various pennies to drop, but I had no problems after that. Thank you to the Mysteron for a good mix of splendid clues, which I had the great pleasure of enjoying twice while sorting out this review.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Afternoon All!. A slight change around to the Toughie reviews. Bufo will be with you tomorrow having swapped with Tilsit who then kindly vacated the chair to let me have a go. There were some lovely clues here and some excellent surface readings as well as some ‘easy hit’ clues to get you started. Thanks to crypticsue for helping me with the wordplay in four clues. Continue reading “Toughie 533”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from the Calder Valley. Yes, I’m up in Yorkshire staying with Tilsit for a couple of days. Tonight we are off to Manchester to the Guardian Extra presentation by new Toughie setter John Halpern, (Dada, Paul, Mudd, Punk).
Once again Thursday brings us a puzzle stamped with trademark Ray T clues.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
MynoT’s last Toughie was all about the colour red so I was expecting a different colour this time because he likes to do series of themes. In fact today’s theme colour gives us a strong hint that he is making his way through the colours of the spectrum in the standard order (indigo should be interesting). I found this one quite a bit easier than his usual Toughies – let us know what you think in a comment. I’ve marked with an asterisk all the clues which I think are related to the theme – if I’ve missed any, let me know.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Today we get a good solid offering from Jay (I presume), one which (if I may borrow a phrase) could be described as a Goldilocks puzzle – not too easy, not too hard, but perhaps just right (depending on how you like your porridge, of course). While there are no clues that really stand out, there are no stinkers either. However, there is a rather hearty serving of charades.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I enjoyed this puzzle from Kcit although it didn’t take up much of my morning!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
We never did find out who the setter was last Tuesday and I’m not sure that we’ll fare any better with today’s puzzle. It’s pretty straightforward, so I don’t expect that the hints will be required too much!
Should you need to see an answer just highlight the space between the curly brackets under the relevant clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Usual stuff from the Monday maestro, with a nice mix of cryptic definitions, anagrams etc all with smooth surface readings.
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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. I’m feeling generous this morning so there are a few more than usual!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Greetings from the Calder Valley! We finish an absolutely brilliant week of puzzles with one of Elgar’s crackers. I thought that following the dazzling Dada debut would be tough, but Elgar has managed it with a puzzle that contains lots of really fine clues. Because there are two long answers that spread round the perimeter, they provide you with quite a solving foot in the door. There’s also a sort of sub-theme with a lot of the answers being of a Gallic nature.