Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26214
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another good puzzle from Jay, although I do have issues with two of the clues (see 25a and 8d). I was surprised as Jay’s clues are usually scrupulously accurate. [It seems that I may have been wrong on one or both, but missed a possible problem with 24a! See annotations below.]
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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52.254523-2.266838
Toughie No 335 by Kcit
A Dog’s Life!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
I didn’t enjoy this one and was surprised when I found out that Kcit was the setter. I thought that a number of the clues were over-contrived in a way that couldn’t be justified by the surface reading. Maybe I should have done it before tackling today’s regular cryptic!
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26213
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Libellule has a theory that Ray T is trying to see how much he can get away with, and he’s certainly managed to smuggle a few risqué (for the Telegraph) clues pass the censor this time. The whole thing is highly entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it – this week has got off to a cracking start. I’d really like to know your views, so please keep the comments coming.
As always the answer to each clue is concealed between the curly brackets beneath the clue – highlight the space between the brackets if you want to reveal it.
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Only Connect
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A quick reminder that tonight the final of Only Connect is on BBC Four at 8.30. Our very own Shamus sets some of the questions on this show.
52.254523-2.266838
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26212
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A nice enjoyable and gentle start to the week. With exactly what we expect from Rufus. No complaints from me. Both Gazza and I agree that 15d is the clue of the day.
As usual if you want to see the answers directly, just highlight the space between the curly brackets.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2531 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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A few hints to get you started on this excellent puzzle from Virgilius.
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 16th April.
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52.254523-2.266838
NTSPP – 009 Review
Spot the Links by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Given the preamble’s listing of 7 “true” and 4 “sort of” theme answers, plus the task of identifying extra words in all but one of the clues, I feared this was going to be a nightmare to solve, but it turned into a puzzle of moderate difficulty and some exceptionally imaginative clue-writing. I really do hope Tilsit has some more puzzles in the bank because if they’re anything like this we’re in for bags of fun in the tradition of the best cryptic crosswords.
On a first read through the clues only 2d gave an immediate answer and, strangely, I didn’t even notice the extra word! This is a feature that shone through consistently – in nearly all cases those extras were well hidden. It was a closer examination of 3d that got me into the theme (cleverly alluded to in the title) and after that the fears of a monster solve proved unfounded.
My favourite clues are in blue and I’ve added extra “click to highlight” parts which will reveal the extra word in each clue.
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 009
Spot the Links by Tilsit
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Welcome to the ninth in our series of weekly puzzles.
Ages ago, before the start of this series, Tilsit promised to write a puzzle for the blog. Well, at long last here it is!
There is a theme, which is particularly appropriate for this weekend (I’ll say no more before I give the game away). What I will say is that you must read the preamble before starting – if you don’t you may finish up scratching your head for quite a while.
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53.740718-2.012274
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26211 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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The usual few hints to get you started.
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 15th April.
Continue reading “DT 26211 – Hints”
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2530
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
Four-letter words scuppered me in this one – at 1D I wrongly had SHED when the large number is “shed load”, and at 23D I missed LEFT as one of the possibilities for ?E?T, and gave up with WENT, BELT and RENT all fitting only half of the clue. Both my fault, though helped by a fear/loathing of 4-letter words with common checking letters. Also helped by not realising that one apparent double definition was actually triple.
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