Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
The usual Wednesday fare from Jay. Comparatively easy and scrupulously fair. Let’s hope the Clueless Club members enjoy this one!
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.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Today we have sporting references in the clues and the answers. This Toughie is about on a par with a fairly difficult daily cryptic.
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.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I found it quite tricky to get in to this Ray T puzzle, which I thought was a bit more difficult than his normal fare. Let us know whether you agree or not, via a comment.
As always, new readers will find the answer to each clue hidden between the curly brackets under it. Drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets if you want to reveal the answer.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This crossword was certainly not on the ‘easy’ side. Let me unabashedly confess that I had a slow start and at one stage I had the following clues yet to go: 1a, 11a, 14a, 25a, 29a and 31a and 2d, 3d, 7d, 21d, 22d and 27d. You will notice that among these are some anagram clues! In the notes below I will try to say what gives a twist of hardness to some of these.
I generally say that the Monday crossword gives a gentle start to the week. This time it may not have been so gentle, but let me assure you that it is a very pleasant solve and we marvel at the superb cluemanship of our Monday Maestro.
Each of the answers is masked in white. Just highlight the white space within the curly brackets and you can read it. When you must!
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.
Continue reading “DT 26176”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Back to normality after the Valentine puzzle – no theme, and unusually for BG, no &lits/all-in-ones. But there are a couple of unusual bits of wordplay. Well I said no theme, but several clues and wordplays have sporting references. Difficulty: pretty gentle.
Continue reading “ST 2524”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ***
Did I have this one coming? After several weeks of easy-to-moderate Fridays this came along with “absolute stinker” tattooed on its forehead. Some tricky wordplay is combined with several very obscure answers.
There is a theme, but there is also a departure from the thematic norm in that the completed grid appears not to contain any thematic material. Instead, we have clues presented as rhyming couplets (hence the forward slash bits) and, spread among them in sequence, all twelve of the calendar months. As a result some of the surface readings come close to being nonsensical but that’s hardly surprising given the constraints imposed by two thematic elements.
My favourite clues are in blue.
Please tell us what you thought of this one, and add your assessment of it by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Having to describe every clue makes you realise how beautifully crafted all Giovanni’s clues are, with every word counting and no excess fat. I don’t think that this is one of his more difficult puzzles and it gives all solvers a very fair chance of completing it.
Leave us a comment, telling us how you got on and what you liked (or didn’t like) about it.
As always the answer to each clue is hidden between the curly brackets under the clue. To reveal an answer just drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
After what was a turbulent week for the site in one way or another, I was somewhat apprehensive when tackling this puzzle. Although I had resolved to simply review the clues and analyse them without overall comments, I feel I cannot let pass what for me was a really enjoyable puzzle and the sort that I look for in a Saturday puzzle, so thank you to Cephas.
Feel free to have your say as usual and don’t forget the star rating system; simply click in the box with your award.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
It’s not unusual for MynoT to provide an education as part of his puzzles. Today’s lesson includes Shakespeare’s Othello, French and Greek history, motor cars and their drivers and Anglo-Saxon servants.
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.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
An interesting crossword today, I started this at a brisk gallop, and then started to slow down, and continued to slow down until the last clue went in. Some of it is very straightforward, some of it is more complicated, but all in all an enjoyable piece of entertainment.
If you have any thoughts on this crossword, you can leave a comment below.
If you are a new visitor to the blog all you need to do is highlight the area between the curly brackets to see the full answer.