Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A not-too-challenging puzzle from Giovanni today with his usual nice mixture of clues but, unusually, no religious references at all. Let us know how you fared in a comment.
To reveal an answer slide your cursor through the space between the brackets under the clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Although there was some muttering from the grumpy corner about this crossword, I quite like a gentler Saturday puzzle – why shouldn’t the old cryptic grey matter have a day off after a week of tussling with Toughies and the like, so thank you to Cephas. This crossword came with the added bonus of being a Pangram.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Dada is a new Toughie setter but he is an experienced setter and is well-known in other publications as Paul, Mudd and Punk. Here he has produced a real Toughie which gave the brain an excellent work out. I have given it 4 stars for both difficulty and enjoyment but I did consider giving it 5 stars for both. That’s how good it is.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This pleasant puzzle from an as-yet unknown setter should satisfy those who find Ray T too difficult.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
In spite of a problem with CluedUp which wiped all my answers out when I’d nearly completed the puzzle, I really enjoyed this one. Osmosis seems to have changed his style a bit over his last couple of puzzles and now we’re getting less of the extremely complicated wordplay and some clues which are more cryptic. The result is a very entertaining puzzle with some “laugh out loud” moments. It’s also a pangram.
Let us know what you thought of the puzzle and please remember to grade it by clicking on one of the stars below.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
The usual Wednesday Wizardry from Jay. I found it a quicker solve than last week’s as there aren’t any 13 letter anagrams and the ones that are here dropped out neatly this morning. So 2* for difficulty but 4* for enjoyment. I toyed with the idea of giving 5* but next week’s may be even better and then what would I do? I don’t think there’s a poor clue in this puzzle but my favourites are highlighted in blue.
As has been said before, some of these clues are much harder to write hints for than to solve!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This pleasant puzzle is the first from Messinae since last November – welcome back. It took me around the same time to complete as the regular cryptic (and not much longer than today’s Quick crossword!).
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
If the Telegraph is following its usual pattern this puzzle should be by Shamus, but I’m not sure of that (Shamus is normally pretty good about leaving a comment to claim ownership of his work, so we may find out later today). It’s a pleasant solve which is not overly difficult, but there are a couple of clues (5d and 26d) where the allusions may cause a bit of head-scratching, so I’ve upped the stars for difficulty from two to three. Let us know your opinion in a comment.
To reveal an answer highlight the space between the crinkly brackets under the relevant clue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Usual Monday morning magic. Liked 7d and 13d a lot – not too sure about 23a though.
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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.