Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25866
Today’s hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
There’s nothing too difficult in today’s Cryptic crossword and the clues range from pretty neat to not so good. I’ve followed Big Dave’s convention in providing the answers hidden inside curly brackets (thanks to him for telling me how to achieve this effect). If you can’t work out the answer from my hint you can reveal it by highlighting the white space inside the curly brackets.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25865
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A nice easy, straightforward puzzle for a Monday morning. This one should tax you a lot less than the Chancellor does!! Continue reading “DT Cryptic No 25865”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25863
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Today’s puzzle was a bit harder than usual, and I struggled with some of the wordplay. In yesterday’s Toughie I tried out a new idea for giving the answers without spoiling the rest of the crossword, and I have tried it here today. Essentially, the answers are between curly brackets in white type – selecting them with the mouse will reveal the answer. Please let me know if you like it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25858 – Review
A full analysis by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
As many of you are aware, this crossword was accidentally released on the CluedUp website last Friday. Although it was subsequently replaced by the correct Friday puzzle, this was not before Libellule had reviewed it for us. Here is that review, revised to give all of the answers. BD
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25862
Today’s hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
It’s Thursday today, so Gazza’s back again. Don’t forget that the full analyses for last weekend’s puzzles are due to be published at noon. You may have already seen the Saturday review as it was released last Friday after being published online by mistake; some small revisions have been applied, mostly to give all the answers as well as the wordplay. BD
I thought that this was an entertaining crossword with some interesting clues and not too difficult, though it does contain one word I’d never heard of.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25861
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Libellule thinks that going to watch France play Wales in Paris is more important than his Friday blog. I’m sure you would all rather he missed the game, but as a penance he has agreed to do today’s instead. BD
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25860
Today’s hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
It seems you all like Gazza’s hints and tips, so I’ve twisted his arm and he’s agreed to do two days a week, starting today, and then back on Thursday. I’ve added a few new bits and pieces to The Mine – Birthstones, Roman Numerals and Zodiac Signs – with more in the pipeline. BD
Today’s puzzle is quite interesting and certainly a bit harder than yesterday’s. There’s one clue (24 across) where I’m unable to provide a very satisfactory explanation of the wordplay and I’d be grateful for comments [stop press – mystery now solved – see clue below] Continue reading “DT Cryptic No 25860”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25859
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Once again you have a nice easy start to the week, with this honest, straightforward puzzle. Try and do as much of this as you can without my help (but don’t put me out of business)!!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25857
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This is a review of the puzzle as published in the newspaper and now available online – the one that was originally published online turned out to be the Saturday Prize crossword!. Neither puzzle was anything special – nothing particularly good or annoyingly bad. For a real puzzle, see today’s Toughie No 99.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25852 – Review
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This analysis is the first contribution from Peter Biddlecombe. Peter was Times crossword champion in 2000 and 2007 and is a pioneer in crossword blogging in the UK (see Times for the Times). I gave this two stars for both difficulty and enjoyment, Peter has been rather more generous and upped it to three! BD.
My time for this was about 60% longer than an average Times puzzle, but I made life hard for myself with two dud answers which had to be corrected – ROUGH OUT at 6D, though the weakness of “some golf = rough” should have made me rub this out, and INCITE at 22D. Without these, an ‘average Times’ time should have been possible.
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