Where new ideas are tried out – only the brave enter into this domain
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
And here is Elgar’s 116th toughie! Half a dozen or so clues went in quickly for me, followed by a wee pause, after which progress was fairly steady with plenty of brilliant penny drop moments along the way. There’s a cracking Nina that presents a story using a little bit of cryptic imagination.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I found this to be a very gentle Beam puzzle with only the SW corner putting up any kind of a fight. There were a few definitions that I didn’t find totally convincing but it was a pleasant enough puzzle. The early finish has given me more time to study the Cheltenham form in an attempt to recoup some of the last two day’s losses when I have suffered from a bad attack of seconditis.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
It’s always a pleasure to get an Elkamere Toughie on a Wednesday and this one is enjoyable as always. I thought it was going to be a pangram but it failed at the last hurdle.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared with the puzzle and what you thought of it.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hi cutie-pies! Today’s puzzle is very special for it is the 444x4th Toughie. By some amazing mathematical coincidence, it is also the 4x444th Toughie. That’s NumberWang! If you notice something else odd(er than usual) about today’s blog you might like to pay attention to the date, or refer back to my blog of a year ago.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ***
I sometimes struggle with proXimal and started this with some trepidation, but it turned out to be a rather pleasant puzzle in which I made steady progress (except for one clue, see below). When I finished, I was surprised that almost 4* time had passed (time flies when you’re having fun), but this might in part be due to me waiting in the pub until the puzzle appeared online at midnight – perhaps others would rate difficulty lower.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I thought you weren’t going to get this review today when my computer suddenly died when I was in the middle of writing it. But after a short delay I managed to reboot the computer and it now seems OK again. I found this puzzle to be one of average difficulty with only the parsing of 4 down causing me any real problems.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
It’s turning out to be a good week in Toughieland – Dada yesterday and Micawber today. I started off at a pedestrian pace with this one but speeded up in the home straight. My last answer was 15a where I needed all the checkers because I’d been thinking of some sort of palace.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Hi all. Tuesday has come again, bringing with it a fun Toughie from Mr Halpern which caused me less trouble than the back page. After an unfocused start I raced through this, but unusually for me left many loose ends to sort out later (normally I like to “tidy up” as I go along – oh, how I wish I were like that in real life!). … Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Notabilis is living up to his cheeky parrot name. A great puzzle which delights in its devious clueing, without being impossibly hard. Very original and a joy to solve. There is even a Nina to feast on. Magnificent.
As always, the definitions are underlined in the clues below.… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A pleasant puzzle that went in smoothly apart from a slight hold-up in the NW corner. When writing the blog I discovered that I hadn’t looked at 24 down which turned out to be a word I’d never heard of though the answer was obvious from the wordplay.… Continue reading