Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ***
Potoroos second Toughie was definitely a proper Toughie with lots to think about and quite a bit of brow-furrowing parsing to sort out so it was a good job I got up extremely early this morning as I had to solve the crossword, prepare and schedule the blog and feed Tim the Tortoise, before having to dash out for an eye screening appointment.
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. I found today’s puzzle to be between yesterday’s and Monday’s in terms of difficulty, with a couple of words that were new to me, and one or two clues that took a while to parse. My favourites today were 13a, 17a, 7d and the brilliant reverse lurker in 16d. I also enjoyed the Quickie pun. Many thanks to our setter.
Sunday Toughie No 233 by Zandio
Review by
Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 12th of July 2026
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This puzzle was published on 12th July 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. Dada has given us a very friendly puzzle to solve this Sunday and now I present to you a full review of his puzzle. Hope to have your valuable feedback and comments.
Toughie No 3725 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to another Toughie Week.
We have another perfectly-pitched Tuesday Toughie from Hudson. Nothing too tricky, but plenty to get the cogs ticking over and a lot of very clever surfaces, some of which assist the solve, and some of which are misdirections. 5d, 8a, 18a, 22d and 26a are all great clues that any other day could have made top spot, but I’m giving my Gold Star to 25a today.
Thank you, Hudson, for a very enjoyable start to the week.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ***/****
A ‘typically Tuesdayish’ & perfectly enjoyable Anthony Plumb puzzle that I’d rate on a par with yesterday’s offering in terms of difficulty.
Though I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet I see Hudson is on duty over in t’other place so that’ll be a puzzle guaranteed to be a good ‘un & well worth checking out if seeking a further challenge. Don’t let the Toughie title put you off as generally the Tuesday offerings are no more difficult than the back-pagers near the end of the week.
As usual there is a selection of music to enjoy or ignore.
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 Ottawa, where I and well over 5000 other homeowners are still cleaning up after the deluge on July 1. The bizarre aspect of the storm is the vastly different rainfall in various parts of the city. Some areas received more than 11 inches of rain in two or three hours while other areas received scarcely more than half an inch.
I found today’s puzzle a slight step up in difficulty from the usual standard for Monday but I may just have been overly tired from all my cleanup chores this week.
I’m afraid there are no illustrations this week. Every attempt at uploading an image was met with an error message from the server.
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.
Sunday Toughie No 234
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Lots of films, birds, dogs and a little bit of Welsh – Suo Gân from Light today
I enjoyed this and would have liked to hint more, but as it is a prize puzzle, I have tried to restrain myself.
I hope you find the checkers to finish, but I will try to give a nudge if shopping and coffee permit
Don’t forget you are all invited to the Old Joint Stock next Saturday
Here we go, Folks…
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Raffles is the name of the cricketer and gentleman thief created by Ernest Hornung, the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle.