February 2011 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

DT 26487

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26487

Hints and tips by Libellule

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

Its bright and sunny here in the Touraine, so I was up nice and early to do the crossword and blog. I rapidly managed to fill the grid, only to leave a small hole in the top right hand corner. The answers to most of these clues also went in pretty quickly, except 9a, after some head scratching I reached for the dictionary. Thats a definition of form, that I was not aware of. Otherwise I enjoyed what is a typical Rufus crossword.

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ST 2577 (Hints)

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2577 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Big Dave

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Not a difficult puzzle, more a film quiz. You must read the editor’s note first – “In this Oscars Special, some answers include figures. A figure 1 should be input as the letter I.”   Only three answers actually contain numbers, and in one of those the numerals are Roman.

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

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NTSPP – 055 (Review)

Not The Saturday Prize Puzzle – 055 (Review)

“Hearsay” by Radler

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Lots of hearsay and homophones in this lovely puzzle from Radler.  I twigged the theme early on in the solving process which may have helped with some of the clues.  Overall, I found this one of the more accessible Radler crosswords.

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NTSPP – 055 (Comments)

Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 055

Hearsay by Radler

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Welcome to the latest in our series of weekly puzzles.

Radler entertains us again with a puzzle which has an interesting theme which is suggested by the sub-title.

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Toughie 518

Toughie No 518 by Elgar

Got any small change, guv?

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

It’s that time of the month again.  Time to wrestle with Elgar and today there was a nice mixture of the laugh-out loud and the sublimely clever.  Did you spot the hidden theme?  If not, look again at 3 down!  One or two definitions that had me reaching for Mrs Bradford’s wonderful Dictionary.

Unfortunately a complicated day today means I have had to call on Big Dave to assist with the downs.

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ST 2576

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2576

A full review by Gnomethang

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

Afternoon All!. This week we had a slightly more difficult puzzle from Virgilius but as usual it had some very witty clues and the trademark hidden words and cheeky constructions. Continue reading “ST 2576”

DT 26485

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26485

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Today’s Giovanni is not the most difficult that we’ve had, and there are a few old chestnuts (but there are always new solvers coming along so they won’t be old chestnuts for everybody). Let us know what you thought of it in a comment.
If you want to see an answer drag your cursor through the space between the brackets under the clue.

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DT 26480

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26480

A Full Review by Crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

This crossword came at the end of a very strange week for the DT Cryptics with the usual order of level of difficulty being much disrupted, and the Prize Puzzle followed the trend being trickier than normal – still only 3* difficulty for me, although I appreciate others will have given it a 4* rating. Thanks to the Mysteron for setting us all the perfect challenge for a very very wet Saturday.

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Toughie 517

Toughie No 517 by Shamus

Hints and tips by Bufo

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

I enjoyed this puzzle. I was becalmed for a while in the top left-hand corner but overall thought it of average difficulty.

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