Where new ideas are tried out – only the brave enter into this domain
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
There’s nothing to terrify the thoroughbreds in this pleasant puzzle from Samuel. I didn’t know the Hobbit or the French composers but in both cases the checking letters and the wordplay soon sorted me out. Thanks to Samuel.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared with the puzzle and what you thought of it.… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Welcome one and all to Big Dave’s Crossword Blog, Toughie Corner. It’s another feast day: one with religious significance for some, but for heathens like me a thin excuse to scarf down some extra food while conveniently choosing not to observe the fast it precedes. … Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***/****
[I don’t know what’s happened to today’s Toughie blog or who’s meant to be providing it, but in the meantime I’m putting up this stub so that people can post comments and queries about it without using the back-page blog. Gazza]
Thank you to Gazza – what follows has been bashed out at speed and more than likely contains multiple errors but I’m working on the better something than nothing theory.… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***/****
An interesting puzzle in which Excalibur displays her usual quirkiness. A slow start while I was getting on the right wavelength was followed by a steady solve of most of the puzzle. I was then held up in the SW corner and finally spent ages staring at 24 across trying to figure out how it worked.… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
What a delight to get another delightful posthumous puzzle from the much-missed Petitjean. Let’s hope that he’s left us several more.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared with the puzzle and what you thought of it.
Across Clues
1a Leak to be fixed in vessel (8)
KEELBOAT – an anagram (fixed) of LEAK TO BE gives us a type of yacht with a heavy bottom to offset the weight of its sails.… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ***
Welcome, friends. Tuesday has come again, and so so have I. I found the NE corner no trouble, but had to beaver away a bit, especially in the south, to get some of the rest. It didn’t help that, becoming hopelessly entangled in the long anagram, I took ages to see 22/23a, which finally came all in a rush. … Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
A brilliant puzzle from Elkamere which didn’t seem overly difficult except for, well, a few difficulties experienced by each of us. We both made generally smooth progress but Dutch was somehow slowed down in NE and should have seen 8d much earlier. Meanwhile, Kitty found a few sticky spots at the end, and managed to have trouble parsing a couple of the clues.… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***/****
Due to a number of email problems this review will be a little late today. A few days ago I lifted the attack status from the website. Today the attacks restarted, so we are back “under attack” which means the firewall with its five-second delay is also back. … Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This is a very enjoyable puzzle from Dada – as usual the tricky bit with many of his clues is to isolate the definition.
I didn’t notice it so much when solving the puzzle but writing the hints brought home to me how many of the clues involve an insertion/container construct – exactly half of the 28.… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
On this special day Kitty is canoodling on the other side, so I’m filling in here. We have a very pleasant crossword offering brandy and more than one port. My last one in was 11a where the combination of a wrong checker (7d) and a focus on the wrong definition held me up for a while, putting me half-way between 1* and 2* time – a nice gentle start to the toughie week
As usual, the definitions are underlined.… Continue reading