December 29, 2010 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 484

Toughie No 484 by Petitjean

The French Connection

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment **

I can’t pretend that I enjoyed this one a great deal (and I don’t think that’s just down to post-Ashes tiredness – well-done to the lads!). There is the usual CluedUp problem of having to hunt around to find the full enumeration for several clues, then we have no less than 13 anagrams to plough through. A bit 15d for me, although Petitjean would probably say “de trop” since he’s started to give his indicators in French! I’m sure that some people will have loved it so let’s have a full range of comments!
This is my last review of 2010 so may I wish everyone a Very Happy New Year – see you all in 2011.

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DT 26435

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26435

Hints and tips by Crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

There is something about having to write a review that can make the little grey solving cells freeze up a bit, but no such problems this morning. Thanks to Jay for a very enjoyable puzzle, with a nice mix of clues, many of which needed you to say something out loud in order to get the correct sense of the word required to obtain the solution, 10a being one example of this.

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