Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 099 (Review)
A Puzzle by Boaz
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Boaz returns with an excellent and cheeky little number. Favourite clues are shown below highlighted in blue.
Monthly Archives: December 2011
NTSPP – 099
December 31, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 099
A Puzzle by Boaz
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Welcome to the latest in our series of weekly puzzles.
If you have solved any of the previous puzzles by Boaz then you will know what to expect! If not then you are in for a treat.
DT 26750 (Hints)
December 31, 2011 – 9:40 am
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26750 (Hints)
The New Year’s Eve Crossword Club
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Happy New Year everyone.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided for them.
Toughie 694
December 30, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Toughie No 694 by Micawber
Looking Back
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Today we have a very special guest blogger. Jon88′s impeccable credentials include membership of the National Puzzlers’ League, crosswords published in the New York Times, Washington Post and Games magazine, regular solving of Times, Telegraph, Spectator and Private Eye puzzles. And I nearly forgot – he has won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament no less than seven times. Quite how he also finds time to work in theatre and cabaret is a mystery! He was the assistant musical director for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey for five years. BD
Tilsit is off this week in a land without Internet, newspapers or television (Narnia?), but before he left, he flung the keys across the pond and appointed me the designated driver. Micawber has given us a memorial puzzle of sorts; explanation down below.
DT 26749
December 30, 2011 – 9:57 am
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26749
Hints and tips by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
For the third time this week, Gazza has kindly vacated the hot seat to allow one of his fellow bloggers who doesn’t normally get the chance to do an on-the-day review to have a go. If he had his well-deserved unaccustomed lie in, he will have missed a superb sunrise which kept distracting me from the job in hand, the review of this very enjoyable Giovanni puzzle.
Toughie 693
December 29, 2011 – 1:31 pm
Toughie No 693 by MynoT
What an Effin’ Toughie!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
The first thing I did with this Mynot puzzle was to determine which letter he has reached in his journey through the alphabet. Once that was established it was a fairly easy solve which I might well have given ** for difficulty had I not stalled on the last couple of clues.
ST 2619
December 29, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2619
A full review by Gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty **- Enjoyment ***
Morning All!. We had a very nice festive puzzle from Virgilius which was one of the first to get us into the Christmas mood. I don’t think that there was anything too tricky on the day but would be interested in any elucidation on 1a, and if there is any more in the clue than myself and BD can see.
DT 26748
December 29, 2011 – 11:06 am
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26748
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This is quite easy once you have cracked the four long answers around the perimeter.
DT 26738
December 29, 2011 – 8:00 am
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26738
A Full Review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** or **** – Enjoyment ***
The Mysteron puzzle on Saturday the 17th certainly divided opinions on the day. We seemed to be evenly split between the ‘that was easy’ brigade and those like me who seriously felt that their cryptic brain cells had gone into pre-Christmas meltdown. The difficulty rating above reflects the views of both ‘camps’. One thing we did all seem to agree on was that it was very enjoyable.
Toughie 692
December 28, 2011 – 1:00 pm
Toughie No 692 by Petitjean
He’s back and he’s cool, tight, wicked, sick, sweet, nice, bad and chill!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Afternoon All!. Gazza is taking another break and kindly asked me if I would like to blog today – I was happy to oblige and delighted to get a fine puzzle from Petitjean. The usual trademarks are there: Food, contemporary music references, a bit of slang, some very well disguised definitions with great penny drop satisfaction plus a couple of clues where one might possibly gripe on the lack of definition by example!. I gave this 3 stars for difficulty and have highlighted my favourites in BLUE.
DT 26747
December 28, 2011 – 10:19 am
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26747
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Well, I managed to survive Benidorm more or less unscathed and have got home to find this excellent puzzle from the Wednesday Wizard – deep joy! For the most part it’s really only a 2* difficulty but a couple of clues had me scratching the head a bit so I drifted over into 3* time.
Toughie 691
December 27, 2011 – 11:19 am
Toughie No 691 by Shamus
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This makes three consecutive Tuesday Toughies that I have enjoyed!
DT 26746
December 27, 2011 – 9:34 am
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26746
Hints and tips by Prolixic
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning all. Gazza is having a lie-in today and offered me the opportunity to blog one of the weekday puzzles. After a run of fairly gentle crosswords our setter today has given us a more meaty offering for us to get our teeth into. Fortunately, no turkey in this crossword just a lot of tricky wordplay for us to savour.
My favourite clues are shown highlighted in blue. Top of the Pops for me today was 26a.
DT 26745
December 26, 2011 – 8:49 am
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26745
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment ***
I gave this two stars for difficult today, mainly because I had to think about 27d for a little while. Otherwise an entertaining if not overly cryptic themed (Winter and New Year) puzzle from Rufus today.
Toughie 100003
December 25, 2011 – 4:40 pm
Toughie No 100003 by Elgar
Watch out, Vlad is back!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *****4 – Enjoyment *****
No fluffy pink slippers today – Elgar has produced this special double-Toughie for Christmas Day. Doubling the size is bad enough, but the addition of the kind of gimmick usually only found in the more advanced barred puzzles has made this four times as difficult.
Please read the instructions given with the puzzle very carefully before starting. Discovering the theme early on, which I did, helps greatly with the puzzle, as does the Nina around the edges of each of the two halves of the puzzle.
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