Big Dave is a semi-retired IT Consultant who lives in the beautiful Worcestershire village of Hanley Swan.
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26307- Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26305
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment **
A mundane puzzle from our mystery setter(s). I can’t see anyone owning up to this one. Nothing really wrong with it, just lacking lustre.
Toughie No 395 by Giovanni
Sounds of the Sixties
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
You never quite know which Giovanni is going to turn up when you tackle one of his Toughies. Having said that, it didn’t take me long to realise that I was in for a struggle today. The usual smattering of religious references and (almost – see 24a) impeccable cluing produced an excellent puzzle.
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2546 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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Another excellent puzzle from Virgilius – enjoy!
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26301 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26299
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment **
It’s mystery setter time again. If you don’t enjoy charades, then you’d better give this one a miss! A couple of good clues get all but drowned out by the rest, but they rescued this puzzle from one-star status.
Toughie No 367 by Messinae
An alternative to today’s back page puzzle!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A gentle “Toughie”, as is usual from Messinae.
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2545 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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No theme this week!
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26295 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26293
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** - Enjoyment **
This week’s mystery setter has given us a puzzle that I can think of little to say about, so that’s what I’ll do.
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26292
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** - Enjoyment ***
A harder puzzle this week from Jay but, apart from 13a, all the answers should be in the average person’s vocabulary. I came down on the side of four stars for difficulty, rather than three, largely because of this one clue, although I had remembered the answer from a very old Toughie (No 162).
Toughie No 387 by MynoT
Out of the frying pan, into the ….
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Having worked out that Mynot’s latest project is to work through the Classical Elements, and Earth and Air having already been covered, I was expecting either Fire or Water and it turned out to be the former. I have highlighted the main clues with a thematic answer in green. Although all three Fire signs of the Zodiac are all present, two of them appear in modern form.
Wedding Bells
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Jane “Jetdoc” Teather and John “Elgar” Henderson will be getting married on Friday 23rd July.
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2544 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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For the second week running we have a topical theme!
Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 022
“First Offence” by Radler
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Welcome to the twenty second in our series of weekly puzzles.
This was the first puzzle that Radler compiled and he has recently revisited it to make it suitable for publication. Knowledge of the theme will assist in solving, but is not essential.
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Big Dave
gazza
Libellule
petebiddlecombe
tilsit
Anax
Rishi
prolixic
gnomethang
bufo
crypticsue
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