Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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You have reached the world’s biggest and best crossword blog. If you are looking for help with the Daily and Sunday Telegraph cryptic crosswords or the Enigmatic Variations advanced cryptic, a total of 13 puzzles a week, then you have come to the right place.
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Typically elegant, albeit über-gentle for a Thursday Django. Not that I’m complaining as I have about a million way trickier fish to fry today! I enjoyed it. Over to you.
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31371
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
A very enjoyable puzzle with a theme based on the members of the 27a rock band. Many thanks to our setter.
Continue reading “DT 31371”
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Weatherman set us a nice ‘start of the week’ Toughie with the possibility of learning some new words along the way
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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 the most challenging of the week so far – an excellent Wednesday workout. There are some very clever clue constructions: I especially liked 9a, once I’d worked out what was going on, and I thought 7d was ingenious. 25a might divide opinion, as it requires some cricketing general knowledge, but it makes it onto my podium as well. Many thanks to our setter.
Sunday Toughie No 245 by proXimal
Full Review by Gazza
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This puzzle was published on 04/10/26
proXimal has provided a very enjoyable Toughie this week.
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 245 (full review)”
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This puzzle was published on 4th October 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A nice, straightforward Sunday puzzle of Dada that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a full review of his puzzle for your kind perusal and important feedback. Continue reading “ST 3389 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3773 by Shabbo
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Welcome to another Toughie Week. Thanks to Gazza for filling in last week whilst I was toiling away in the Santa Clara area: Anna’s Hummingbird, Least and Elegant terns, Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitcher, White Pelican and Northern Harrier were amongst the incidental avian highlights.
We have an excellent puzzle from Shabbo today (and a rare example of being right with my morning “guess the setter” game). There’s nothing too difficult, but the puzzle is very well crafted with generally concise but smooth-surfaced clues. 17a, 20d, 24a and 27a (lovely word) all stood out for me, but my absolute favourite today was the wonderful 1d – perfect on all fronts. Thanks to Shabbo for another cracker!
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ***/****
A miserable start to the morning here in Harpenden though the forecast promises a dry afternoon so I’ll make a judgement later as to whether it’s sensible to take my wheezing chest onto the golf course. Having been firmly entrenched in the Slough of Despond after 4 opening defeats, 10 goals conceded & none scored my team’s impressive 4-1 thumping of Newcastle at home last night for a 2nd successive victory has lightened the mood considerably – if we can travel to a struggling Spurs next Monday & get a result I’ll start to really believe we can stay in the division.
Today’s puzzle is unmistakably an Anthony Plumb production & as Senf says it was Typically Tuesdayish. I’d rate it about on a par with yesterday in terms of difficulty though there were maybe one or two elements to it that required some GK. As ever it was nicely clued throughout & it was an enjoyably brisk solve.
Our old Thursday blogger is on duty over in t’other place with another of his delightfully gentle Toughies that I cannot recommend highly enough. It really is no more difficult than the back-pager & is great fun so give it a try if you never venture to the other side. Whybird (if back from his travels) will be delighted to hear your thoughts.
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.
Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians, including my Monday blogging partner Falcon. And if you aren’t Canadian, maybe you can think of something else to be thankful for today?
Here we’re in the middle of Ilkley Literature Festival. So far we’ve been entertained by poets Brian Bilston and Pam Ayres, informed by John Kampfner, and introduced to a couple of new-to-me novelists, at which we were given proof copies of their books due out in April. One of next weekend’s talks is crossword-related: Alys Cummings is talking about her debut novel Murder Most Cryptic. If that sounds like your kind of thing, come and join us: buy a ticket and treat yourself to a trip to Ilkley.