May 13, 2011 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 562

Toughie No 562 by Elgar

Be scared! Be very very scared!

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

It’s that day of the month, when ladders are left alone and black cats are encouraged to go walking, and we have a cracking themed puzzle from Elgar to celebrate the day and its number.

Lots of amusing clues and presumably the Telegraph lawyers felt comfortable with 10 across 1 down (the numbering on the web print is wrong, by the way). I prefer Hammer Films to the modern gory trend of horror films so had to Google a couple of the answers to check them out. And any excuse to play one of my favourite singers’ version of a certain song is fine by me! Thanks to Elgar for one of his best-ever Toughies, although I suspect solvers abroad may not agree with me.

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ST 2587

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2587

A full review by Gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Afternoon All!. Last Sunday gave us another archetypal Virgilius puzzle. No nonsense, no theme, just a series of well crafted clues with a few pleasing ‘penny-drop moments’ and not much too trouble judging from the comments on the day.

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DT 26551

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26551

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

We have a typical Giovanni today – a couple of religious references, a couple of new words (for me, anyway) but all impeccably clued. 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 curly brackets under the relevant clue.

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DT 26546

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26546

A full review by Crypticsue

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

Quite a few of us found this week’s prize puzzle from Cephas slightly more tricky than usual.   The obvious ones went in straight away and some of the stragglers took a while for the penny to drop, but in the end the whole thing was solved in my usual time.   Thanks to Cephas for the enjoyable challenge.

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