Daily Telegraph – Page 692 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 700

Toughie 700 by Osmosis

All Together Now: Tum-Te-Tum-Te-Tum-Te-Tum

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

Osmosis has produced a great puzzle for us today with a lovely mixture of clues (and it’s a pangram). There are a few easy clues sprinkled round the puzzle to provide footholds for the assault on the trickier ones (where the doh moments are to be found).
Please let us know how you got on and rate the puzzle for enjoyment by clicking on one of the stars below.

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DT 26759

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26759

Hints and tips by pommers

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Maybe it’s just me but I thought this was a fair bit trickier than recent Wednesday puzzles and I found the right hand side a lot harder than the left!  Some excellent clues, as usual, but there are a couple that I think don’t quite work. It will be interesting to hear what others think.

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Toughie 699

Toughie No 699 by Cephas

Anything could happen in the next half hour…

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ****

Tuesday does seem to be the slot for the easier Toughies, but I quite enjoyed this one.

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DT 26758

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26758

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Nothing too frightening from the Mysteron today, though he has given us a couple of potential topics to discuss in the form of a politician who’s probably not that well known even in his own household and an old musician who would not have been remembered at all were it not for the woman he married. Let us know what you thought of it.
If you want to reveal an answer just highlight the space between the brackets under the relevant clue.

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DT 26757

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26757

Hints and tips by Libellule

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

Personally I thought this was a bit trickier than usual for a Monday morning, but thats probably me having a bad day. However it was still fun, especially 23a and 14d for example.

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DT 26756 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26756 (Hints)

Big Dave’s Crossword Club

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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.

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Toughie 698

Toughie No 698 by Elgar

Value for Money!

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

Greetings from the Calder Valley. After a lovely break in the Lake District (embarrassing photos safely locked away), it’s back to the wordface with this beast of a puzzle from Elgar. Thanks to Jon for stepping in and blogging last Friday’s wonderful Micawber puzzle so brilliantly.

There is a theme running through Elgar’s puzzle today related to a famous film dynasty and a couple of their most famous oeuvres, a musical connection to the films and a further musical theme. Value for money indeed from our esteemed setter. The clues are up to the usual high standard with a couple of Downs that take quite a bit of understanding.

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DT 26755

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26755

Hints and tips by Gazza

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

This was a game of two halves for me. Three-quarters of the grid went in fairly quickly, then I got held up in the NE corner where I was convinced that 9a was going to be a country and that the definition of 5d was “provided” – some nice bits of misdirection here. Thanks to Giovanni for a very enjoyable puzzle.
Let us know what you thought of it. If you want to reveal an answer just highlight the space between the brackets under the clue.

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DT 26750

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26750

A full review by Gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Morning All! –What with the Christmas puzzle closing dates being spread out we have two Saturday puzzles to review and this is the second after Crypticsue’s (she will be continuing in the next two weeks with the Sundays). This was all back to normal from Cephas and I liked this one particularly for the good start at 1 Across

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DT 26744

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26744

A Full Review by Crypticsue

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

Christmas Eve seems a long time ago but that is when we were treated to this special seasonally- themed puzzle from Rufus.  I always enjoy one of his  Monday puzzles as they are a good straightforward start  to the crosswording week and so it was nice to have this extra Saturday treat, with just the right level of difficulty for a busy day.   My only slight quibble would be that it does seem a little heavy on the double definitions.

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