Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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A few hints to get you started
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 17th June.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
If any of you are about to pick your jaws off the floor after seeing a 2-star difficulty rating, let me just say that from time to time it’s possible to be on the setter’s wavelength from clue 1, and for the answers to flood in with barely a pause. It’s quite rare, but it happens. That was certainly the case here, with nine across answers entered almost without thinking, which of course was an ideal start for filling several downs as well. To be honest I could have reduced the rating to 1 star, but while the answers went in quickly there were occasions when unravelling the wordplay wasn’t straightforward, and as I write this I’m still thinking about 24a and 28a.
Easy as the puzzle is, there are some cracking clues as you’d expect from Elgar, 4d being the pick of the bunch, and the odd bit of signature naughtiness. Another Elgar trademark is the occasional strangeness of surface reading – perhaps a few more than usual in this puzzle.
As ever, my favourite clues are in blue.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I took longer than I should have to do this puzzle by Giovanni (partly explained by my putting in the wrong answer for 5a) because in retrospect I don’t think that it’s one of his more difficult ones. What’s your opinion? Leave us a comment and please remember to vote by clicking on one of the stars at the bottom.
As always, the answers are hidden between the brackets under the clues. Just highlight the space between the brackets to reveal them.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
A bit of a curate’s egg today with a couple of interesting and challenging clues, plus a number of very hackneyed ones: 9a, 11a, 22a, 1D, 20d and 24d. As I’ve said before, there will be some of you who have never seen these before, but 11 across was one of the first clues I ever solved in a crossword at some tender age.
I also wasn’t keen on a couple of clues, as you’ll see in the narrative. Overall I thought it rather easy for a Thursday and probably just about suitable for the Telegraph daily.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Let me first apologise to Big Dave for going away last week and leaving him with an Excalibur puzzle to blog, I did look at it on my return and I doubt that I would have been much more complimentary than he was. But to be honest I would quite cheerfully have taken last week’s Excalibur puzzle in exchange for this week’s MynoT puzzle.
I filled in all the squares reasonably quickly and then had to resort to the dictionary to check several answers and to work out some wordplay that I hadn’t fully understood. I think I now understand it all but I’m sure someone will tell me of any subtleties I may have missed. Once again MynoT includes three signs of the zodiac as answers.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Once again, as last week, I thought that this puzzle was let down by some clues that didn’t really cut the mustard, in particular some of the cryptic definitions. Also some of the surface reading telegraphed the wordplay instruction which made the puzzle very straightforward as a result. This is a shame really as more recent Saturday Prize Puzzles have been more tricky and, for me, more enjoyable.
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Today the CluedUp site was ported to a different server. Unfortunately, as Gazza reports elsewhere, it seems to be powered by a Sinclair ZX-80.
I will be out for the rest of the morning, so today’s blogs may be a bit late. In anticipation of problems, we have secured, courtesy of Phil McNeill, copies of the two puzzles, together with the Quick crossword.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
As well as producing a fine Toughie today, Shamus has incorporated in a Nina (hidden message) a greeting to BD and the rest of us. So, of course, that earns it five stars for enjoyment (I just hope that 1d, 2d isn’t meant to be a second hidden message!). If you haven’t found the Nina yet there’s an explanation of how to find it at the bottom of the review.
Let us know in a comment what you think of the puzzle, and whether you found the Nina!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A plethora of double definition clues today – some, but no means all, are part-cryptic. Along with anagrams, double definitions are often a very good way of getting started on a puzzle.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Tilsit s the only person I know who can get injured playing Bridge, so I am stepping in for him today. Not for the first time, I am asking what was Tough about this puzzle. Perhaps you can let me know.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.