Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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Toughie No 3713 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings! We have a high-quality offering today from Hudson, to whom many thanks. Perfectly pitched for a Tuesday, I feel, with a good few needing a bit of careful consideration and some less-than-common vocabulary, but nothing too tricky, although 1a had me digging around a bit. The clues are all scrupulously fair and there are many great surfaces. 1a, 3d, 5d, 9a, 14d and 19d were my particular favourites.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***/****
The sun is just bursting through here in Harpenden but it’s mercifully cooler so it looks like a more comfortable week ahead before returning to a sauna again next week.
Having commented late yesterday that today’s puzzle was unlikely to be as tricky as yesterday’s above average difficulty puzzle it turned out (for me at least) that it was so I’m giving it an extra *. A straightforward grid fill but I found one or two bits of the wordplay required a bit of thinking about & I was embarrassingly slow to twig the definition context at 19a. As ever nicely & concisely clued from AP & very enjoyable.
I see Hudson is over in t’other place so that’s bound to be a cracker to look forward to later. Tuesday Toughies are generally very accessible & well worth having a stab at even if you never stray beyond the shallow end of the pool. Whybird is one lifeguard duty & will be on hand if you get into any difficulty.
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.
Hello. Lovely to see you all for this Monday crossword.… Continue reading
Sunday Toughie No 231
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After Thursday I was hoping, but we haven’t seen a Robyn here in Sunday Toughie land since #175, 1st June 2025, over a year ago; however, Beam is a more than adequate replacement. The daunting castellated grid (nice description, ALP) soon filled itself as I watched a slightly laboured performance of England last night. I was able to turn in before Keane and Neville had their say.
14a and 14d clues and I have hinted half. Beam trademarks are there, under six words per single word solutions, no anagrams, Queens, sweethearts, and initialisms, although we have been spared a trip to the lingerie department today.
I can’t hint them all, but will try and give a nudge if you ask
Here we go, Folks…
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Gemini wasn’t very helpful – basically, rewrote the preamble as a structured list (it loves organising information but isn’t it supposed to make it useful as well?). … Continue reading
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A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where today begins a ‘run’ of three ‘close together’ blogging milestones for me which will end in mid-September. Today is my 600th blog overall – around 80% Sundays and the rest SPPs and weekday back pagers except for, as far as I can recall, and reworking a film title from 1960 starring Melina Mercouri, Never on Monday.
Another new, for me, meteorological term – Western Canada is under a Rex Block; don’t ask me to explain it as I have no idea other than we can expect thunderstorms today and tomorrow! Life was so much easier when Michael Fish mistakenly denied the existence of a hurricane!
For me, and I stress for me,© after a number of symmetric weeks Dada asymmetrically quite friendly today with one long ‘un, eight anagrams with three partials, one lurker (with one of the usual indicators), and one homophone, all in an asymmetric 29 clues; with 15 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should/might be able to get some of the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!
If it is some time since you read, or if you have never read the instructions in RED below the hints then please consider doing so before commenting today as my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****