Welcome

January 29, 2009 – 12:00 am

Welcome to Big Dave’s Crossword Blog

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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, a total of 11 puzzles a week, then you have come to the right place.  Here  you will get help with solving these puzzles, and the wordplay will be explained by fellow solvers in simple, easy to understand, terms.

If this is your first time, or for more information about this site, please click on Read More »

By Big Dave | Posted in Announcements, Highlight | Comments Off

DT 26307 – Hints

July 31, 2010 – 1:29 am

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26307- Hints

Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club

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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.

Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.

A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 5th August.

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By Big Dave | Posted in Crosswords, Prize Crosswords, Saturday Hints | Tagged , , , | Comments (17)

Toughie 398

July 30, 2010 – 2:09 pm

Toughie No 398 by Osmosis

C’mon Everybody!

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BD Rating – Difficulty **** - Enjoyment ****

Greetings from Calderdale Hospital once more, my second home. I was rushed here yesterday following advice from NHS Direct the previous evening that nothing was wrong and to take two Paracetamol and go to bed.

I logged in at midnight to tackle today’s challenge and found it quite stern and well up to the usual Osmosis standard. Luckily I finished his recent Independent challenge only the other day and was able to lock in to the tight standard of cluemanship with beautifully concealed definitions. I still found it a good workout.

As usual the answers are concealed between the squiggly brackets and you can highlight them with your mouse if you get stuck. Feel free to comment after the blog and of course you can rate the puzzle with the star system. Clues I really liked are highlighted in blue.

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By tilsit | Posted in Crosswords, Osmosis, Toughie Crosswords | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (14)

ST 2456

July 30, 2010 – 12:00 pm

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2546

A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe

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BD Rating – Difficulty tba - Enjoyment tba

Peter’s expert review of this puzzle should be available here by Saturday at the latest.  Meanwhile, for those who are too impatient, here are the answers!  BD

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By petebiddlecombe | Posted in Crosswords, Prize Crosswords, ST Cryptic Crosswords, Sunday | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

DT 26306

July 30, 2010 – 11:00 am

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26306

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***

We have a fairly straightforward challenge from Giovanni today (what I would call a bread-and-butter puzzle rather than a firecracker). Let us know what you thought in a comment.
As always the answers are concealed between the brackets under the clues – highlight the space between the brackets to make one visible.

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By gazza | Posted in Crosswords, DT Cryptic Crosswords, Friday | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (44)

Toughie 397

July 29, 2010 – 12:58 pm

Toughie No 397 by Warbler

Hints and tips by Bufo

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment ***

Big Dave reckoned that this would be a gentle solve and so it proved. It was a pleasant enough puzzle but far from Toughie standard. There were some answers (10 Ac, 1 Dn, 3 Dn) where I was not familiar with the meanings used, but they were obvious enough from the wordplay.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

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By bufo | Posted in Crosswords, Toughie Crosswords, Warbler | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (16)

DT 26301

July 29, 2010 – 12:00 pm

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26301

A Full Review by Gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Afternoon All!. We have an archetypal Cephas puzzle with no really difficulties but one possible bone of contention at 24d. Personally I enjoyed it, hence the 3 stars.
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By gnomethang | Posted in Crosswords, DT Cryptic Crosswords, Prize Crosswords, Saturday | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (9)

DT 26305

July 29, 2010 – 10:50 am

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26305

Hints and tips by Big Dave

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment **

A mundane puzzle from our mystery setter(s).  I can’t see anyone owning up to this one.  Nothing really wrong with it, just lacking lustre.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

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By Big Dave | Posted in Crosswords, DT Cryptic Crosswords, Thursday | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (38)

Toughie 396

July 28, 2010 – 11:47 am

Toughie No 396 by Shamus

A Surfeit of Scribbling

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****

Not for the first time I find myself reviewing a Shamus puzzle two days in a row. As Toughies go this is not one of the hardest and I enjoyed solving it a lot though I found the right-hand side quite a bit easier than the left.
Let us know what you thought in a comment, and please remember to grade the puzzle by clicking on one of the stars at the bottom.

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By gazza | Posted in Crosswords, Shamus, Toughie Crosswords | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (9)

DT 26304

July 28, 2010 – 10:23 am

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26304

Hints and tips by Crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***

A fairly straight forward mid week offering from Jay, with the usual number of interesting anagrams and a couple of clues to give you pause for thought, hence my awarding it three stars for difficulty. Although it took me the longest to work out, I am going for 23a as my favourite clue today.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

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By crypticsue | Posted in Crosswords, DT Cryptic Crosswords, Wednesday | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (37)

Toughie 395

July 27, 2010 – 1:58 pm

Toughie No 395 by Giovanni

Sounds of the Sixties

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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****

You never quite know which Giovanni is going to turn up when you tackle one of his Toughies.  Having said that, it didn’t take me long to realise that I was in for a struggle today.  The usual smattering of religious references and (almost – see 24a) impeccable cluing produced an excellent puzzle.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

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By Big Dave | Posted in Crosswords, Giovanni, Toughie Crosswords | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (25)

DT 26303

July 27, 2010 – 11:00 am

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26303

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***

Two clues turned this Shamus puzzle, for me, from a 3* to a 4* for difficulty – 14a which was the last to go in and which I’d have got much quicker if I’d realised earlier that it contained the one letter necessary to turn the puzzle into a pangram, and 30a which I made much more difficult by foolishly writing in 23d as a noun rather than a verb. Let us know how you got on in a comment.
If you need to see the answers, they are hidden between the brackets under the clues. Just drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets to reveal one.

Read More »

By gazza | Posted in Crosswords, DT Cryptic Crosswords, Tuesday | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (57)

DT 26302

July 26, 2010 – 9:01 am

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26302

Hints and tips by Libellule

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment ***

One of Rufus’ easier crosswords today – I think. If I hadn’t initially put Victoria in at 2d it would have been a “one or two stopper” to quote Prolixic. But that still doesn’t stop it from being entertaining and a fun crossword to do.

If the hints don’t help, just highlight the space in the curly brackets to reveal the answer.

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By Libellule | Posted in Crosswords, DT Cryptic Crosswords, Monday | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (47)

ST 2546 (Hints)

July 25, 2010 – 2:49 pm

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2546 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Big Dave

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Another excellent puzzle from Virgilius – enjoy!

Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.

Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 30th July.

Read More »

By Big Dave | Posted in Crosswords, Prize Crosswords, Sunday Hints | Tagged , , , | Comments (19)

NTSPP – 024 (Review)

July 24, 2010 – 5:43 pm

NTSPP – 024

A puzzle by Anax

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One of Anax’s fortes is his ability to create clues that seamlessly merge definition, wordplay and link words. Looking at one of his clues you can never sure where one part of the clue ends and the other begins. In today’s cracker of a puzzle (pun intended), this ability comes to the fore with so many good clues it is difficult to pick favourites. Ones that I particularly enjoyed for the wordplay or surface reading are highlighted in blue.

There is a theme in this crossword. A number of the clues rely on definitions that are not given in the clues themselves but are defined by the wordplay in the clue (not the answer) to 22d.

Read More »

By prolixic | Posted in Anax, Crosswords, Guest Crosswords | Comments (3)

NTSPP – 024 (Comments)

July 24, 2010 – 12:00 pm

Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 024

A Puzzle by Anax

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Welcome to the twenty fourth in our series of weekly puzzles.

This week we have another excellent puzzle from Anax.

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By Anax | Posted in Anax, Crosswords, Guest Crosswords | Comments (4)