Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Toughie No 3724 by Dharma
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Enjoyable but very gentle for a Friday Toughie – thanks to Dharma. Having a single 3-letter anagram did seem slightly odd and I wondered whether there had been a last-minute change to what had been intended to be an anagram-free puzzle.
Continue reading “Toughie 3724”
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Pretty straight(forward). 11a’s dramatist pushed my memory and 16a reminded me that I’ve never known how to spell his name. But both are generously clued and, as such, this was more of a skip than a jump. The floor is yours to tell me I’ve got the ratings absolutely spot-on yet again … or not!
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Pleasingly gentle from Django today. The only vaguely time-consuming element was checking the anagram fodder but – like a saint! – I’ve done it so you don’t have to. There’s some Beam-ish mention of boobs and blue tablets that makes the presumably accidental four-letter central Nina seem rather appropriate. There’s also the Miss Piggy reference that, for some reason, always makes me smile. ‘Tis all very jolly. The floor, as ever, is yours.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Toughie No 3716 by Luxor
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Luxor has upped his difficulty level a bit since his last Toughie and has given us an enjoyable challenge – thanks to him. I thought at one stage that we were heading for a pangram but it was not to be.
Continue reading “Toughie 3716”
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****/*****
A rumbustious return from Dharma, full of his typical humour and honed surfaces, prompting a slow start but a quick finish. I found many of the downs marginally easier than the acrosses but that’s possibly because I had all the checkers by then – being pathetically English, I do like to doggedly work from top to bottom. Other methods are, of course, available. Hopefully, my 2.5 will find safer harbour than usual … the floor is yours to trumpet your agreement!
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Well, what an unexpected treat: an all-too-rare Toughie from Robyn. Then again, he does have other fish to fry these days. Not the friendliest of portcullis grids but, heck, it is a Thursday and the clueing is, of course, delightful – largely gentle-ish and supremely logical. A soupçon of French, football and (boo!) AI. Only the exotic 12a gave me any real pain, but its building blocks are clear. I could easily have added an extra half on for that alone but, on checking the clock, a muscular two it is. The floor is yours … howl at me if you must!
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Another pretty gentle Toughie from Kcit. There is, I suppose, a spot of vocab (13a, 7d) but it’s very generously clued. I briefly flirted with adding an extra half on for difficulty but almost immediately recanted – it is, after all, Thursday. The floor is, as ever, yours to say I was right wrong!