Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Toughie No 3501 by Donnybrook
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from a distinctly dreich Wirral. I suppose the garden will benefit, but it’s not what I want from late June! … Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***/****
A bit of an overcast start to the day here in Harpenden after some much needed overnight rain but the sun has now come out & it’s brightening up nicely which suits me fine for golf this afternoon.
This one took me a bit longer to complete than is usual for me with an AP puzzle but I think that was probably the result of another poor night’s sleep due to this hot weather. As ever nicely clued throughout & with some excellent surface reads. I’m swapping shifts with Shabbo next week as he has once again agreed to accommodate my golfing commitments.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED & the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons. Please leave a comment below telling us what you thought & how you got on with the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from my lakeside retreat outside Ottawa, where summer has made a dramatic entry, with high winds and tornado warnings and temperatures forecast to reach the mid-thirties today.
The puzzle did not appear to me to be the work of any of our recent setters so I will not venture a guess. However, it should appeal to fans of anagrams and word search.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
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A great Toughie from Zandio today, I managed to see it at about 11:30 last night and it didn’t take me much past midnight to fill the grid. Parsing it this morning took longer. The Spoonerism and nod to our new Tuesday Toughie blogger is probably my favourite today, but plenty of podium candidates.
I don’t think it is sufficient to call a theme but a couple of military units hit the cutting room floor, and another sneaks into 28a. I will try and nudge unhinted clues, if you identify some or all of the picture for 28a
We have 14a and 16d clues today and I have hinted half.
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where it was approximately 10 degrees cooler on my Saturday evening compared to 24 hours earlier, when I was struggling a little with the SPP, giving ideal conditions for solving and hinting half of a Dada puzzle.
For me, and I stress for me©, and I hope I don’t upset or annoy anyone, perhaps some will agree with me, the friendliest Dada has ever been for all of the 343 of his Sunday puzzles I have blogged, I suppose one could ask if it is a Dada puzzle at all – eight anagrams (two partials), two lurkers both reversed, and two homophones all in an asymmetric 30 clues; with 15 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. And, remember, my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
Candidates for favourite – 1a, 13a, 27a, 3d, 8d, and 18d.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.
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Toughie No 3500 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
Osmosis has brought his usual bag of tricks to this puzzle which I really enjoyed working through. He’s given us almost (but not quite) a pangram, a pleasing lack of anagrams and pairs of the more unusual letters juxtaposed in the centre of the grid.
Continue reading “Toughie 3500”
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment *****
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. I thought this puzzle was just brilliant, with the laugh out loud PDM produced by 14d bumping the enjoyment score up to a rare five stars. Thank you, setter! I’m afraid that work commitments meant a another late start to producing hints, and so sadly I had no time to search for suitable pictures. I hope that the commentariat will provide a few. Continue reading "DT 30958"
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This puzzle was published on 14th June 2025
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A lovely, elegant Saturday puzzle from NYDK that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and important feedback. Continue reading “DT 30953 (Full Review)”
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment *****
A Django’s always a treat and this was no exception.… Continue reading