December 3, 2010 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 470

Toughie No 470 by Elgar

Libertarianism!

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

Tilsit is having a bad day today so I have taken over the blogging responsibility.

After twenty minutes I was staring at a puzzle with four answers filled in, then suddenly it all fell into place. Many Telegraph solvers struggle with Elgar puzzles, probably because his setting style is Libertarian rather than the more-usual Ximenian. This allows him to take “liberties” with some of the clues. I don’t want to go into more detail here, but will try to get something added to the FAQ.

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ST 2564

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2564

A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe

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

Here’s a puzzle using one of those “natural” 15×15 grids with words of 5, 7, and 9 letters. These have the potential to include some very familiar content, but although there are a few old favourite answers here, there are plenty of less frequent visitors to the grid too, and enough difficulty to make it a relatively tricky Sunday Telegraph puzzle for me, even with 3 hidden word clues.

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DT 26414

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26414

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

A not too difficult puzzle from Giovanni today and I did waver between two and three stars for difficulty. A couple of the clues stand out for me. How about you? Let us know what you thought of it in a comment!
We get new readers all the time, so I’m sure that regulars will forgive the need for a constant reminder that the answers are concealed between the curly brackets under each clue. Just highlight the space between the brackets to reveal one.

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DT 26409

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26409

A Full Review by Gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Morning All!. I failed to realise last week, due to lack of thought, that Cephas had taken a break and a new setter was in place so I was comforted to see that this week’s was one of his – the usual good charades and cryptic definitions, some gentle, some not so, confirmed this.

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