March 26, 2009 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

ST Cryptic No 2476 – Review

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2476 – Review

A full analysis by Big Dave

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

A hardish crossword, but the improvement in the Sunday  puzzles continues.

Continue reading “ST Cryptic No 2476 – Review”

DT Cryptic No 25882 – Review

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25882 – Review

A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

Another strange grid – if you don’t get the 15-letter answers, this is four separate crosswords, with uneven checking – the 9-letter answers are underchecked (4 of 9) and the 3s and 15s are overchecked – 3/3 and 9/15. And of course, the 4/5/7/8/10/…-letter words can’t come out to play.

Lots of the clues seem like gentle puns rather than really cryptic clues, and several of the more cryptic ones use words/definitions so close together that the clue is very easy or might lead to more than one answer Continue reading “DT Cryptic No 25882 – Review”

Toughie No 118

Toughie No 118 by Giovanni

Relatively easy despite some long answers

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

I made steady progress through this puzzle, and the one long word was soon revealed by the checking letters (together with Chamber’s online); this could have been a little difficult look up if you were doing this on the 7.55 to 3 down!

Continue reading “Toughie No 118”