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Nothing too taxing here - although I did enjoy the comment made - there is no denying its truth!

I am looking at subscriptions for the i (mainly for the iq)! the cheapest seems to be the digital version (where you get access to the website and app - as opposed to where you get the digital version of the paper).

Does annyone know if you can access the iq via the website or app?

Thanks in advance

Can’t help with digital access, I’m afraid. But I agree it was a gentle and amusing puzzle. I particularly liked the way the two items were linked in the endgame.

So 14.00 on Sunday and the Listener, Mephisto, IQ and EV all done. That’s a first!

Jack, EV already done? I've only had a quick look as West Ham have been playing but with no clue numbers in the grid and no letter count for the answers I had thought it must be difficult.

What's the cheapest way to get EV - and how does it compare to listener/iq?

.... although, on closer inspection, the grid does have the thick black bars and the answers are in conventional order so that will give the answer length.

Brendan, to make life easier I printed two grids and used one to mark the entries, (using numbers for across and letters for downs to make it even simpler). Then I could concentrate on solving, many of the clues are quite gentle and the theme and amendments emerge quite quickly.

Andy, the Telegraph offers a crossword only subscription. I find I sometimes have to log in several times to make it work which is a bit of a faff but worth the trouble.

Thanks jack - thats helpful - seems somewhat more justifiable - there is only so much news i can read!

jack, brendan - i signed up to the week free trial of the telegraph puzzles, and did a couple of recent EVs (1530 and 1531) - a "lovely" one referencing beatles and a "killer" one

i managed both without much trouble (and am far from an expert).

Is this indicative difficulty level of EVs, or were these just on the easier side, and like iq and listener vary in difficulty?

Andy, in my (not very extensive) experience, all are variable in difficulty but the EV tends to be gentler on the whole. Difficult Listeners can be “hard but fair” (to borrow from the Pythons) and some of the most difficult IQs are just beyond me. Others here have been doing themed crosswords for a lot longer than me and may have more informed views.

Probably EV slightly easier on average (e.g. this week's was A-grade in Magpie terms imho) -- but there have been very difficult EVs recently, e.g. 1541 was very challenging (again imho).