Big Dave's Crossword Blog – Page 854 – Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English

Toughie 1237

Toughie No 1237 by Elkamere

Ready for Kick-off

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

There was a distinct football flavour to today’s Toughie. Apart from initially putting “husband” in at 6 down, there is no obvious reason why it took me as long as it did.

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DT 27563

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27563

Hints and tips by Deep Threat

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BD Rating – Difficulty *Enjoyment ***

Good morning from South Staffs. I’m off to the eye hospital for a check-up this morning, so no pictures today.

Others may disagree, but I found this the easiest puzzle from Giovanni since I have been doing the Friday blog – comfortably within * time.

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DT 27558

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27558

A full review by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

This puzzle was published on Saturday, 2nd August 2014

This Saturday Puzzle took me longer than usual to solve but I don’t really know why .   My stand out favourite is 9d

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Toughie 1236

Toughie No 1236 by Notabilis

A Rare Thursday Treat

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

It was very pleasing to discover that Notabilis was making a rare Thursday appearance. I think that it’s only the fourth Notabilis puzzle that I ever have had to blog and it’s the first for 19 months. It didn’t disappoint me. I was surprised when I’d finished the puzzle to discover that it had taken me so long. I thought it was being an average 3* difficulty puzzle but the time it took me definitely took it into 4* territory. I must have been enjoying it not to notice the time passing by. This puzzle showed that it is possible to set a genuine Toughie without resorting to obscure answers or complex wordplay.

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DT 27562

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27562

Hints and tips by Kath

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

Good morning all – it looks as if it’s going to be a lovely day in Oxford – maybe the Met men have got it wrong! Archy is busy, Mehitabel has said if he won’t play then she won’t either so it’s just me, with BD doing the bits that I still can’t do! I’m quite sure that this is a Ray T crossword.

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ST 2754

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2754

A full review by gnomethang

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

This puzzle was published on Sunday, 27th July 2014

Morning All!. This was a fairly straightforward solve for me but a few stragglers placed it into the 3 star solving window.

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Toughie 1235

Toughie No 1235 by Beam

Don’t Mention Brazil

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

Beam, as always in anagram-free mode, provides his usual ration of chuckles. A fair bit of thinking outside the box is needed to match up some bits of the answers to what’s in the clue – but that’s why it’s a Toughie.
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DT 27561

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27561

Hints and tips by scchua

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

For some reason, it was hard starting on this one, but once past the tipping point, it was quite straightforward. A 1.5*/3* difficulty/enjoyment. Thanks to Jay.

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Toughie 1234

Toughie No 1234 by Excalibur

A Shirley Temple or something a little stronger??

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

A Tuesday level Toughie from Excalibur with several  opportunities to type ‘from the clue’ as I prepared the blog.  The difficulty rating is 2.5 because parsing some of the clues did take slightly longer than usual

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DT 27560

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27560

Hints and tips by Gazza

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

I didn’t have too many problems with this one once I’d corrected my spelling at 13d Do let us know how you fared and what you thought.
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