Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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You have reached the world’s biggest and best crossword blog. If you are looking for help with the Daily and Sunday Telegraph cryptic crosswords or the Enigmatic Variations advanced cryptic, a total of 13 puzzles a week, then you have come to the right place.
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
As ever, one of the trickiest elements of blogging (apart from trying and failing to come up with musical clips that don’t enrage Jane!) is the difficulty rating. Talking of Jane, I know we all hope that no news is good news. Everything crossed. If you’re on Dharma’s wavelength (and, for some reason, I generally am) this should fly in, but, if you’re not, some of his typically wily wordplay might slow you down. I’ve gone with a safe-ish 1.5 – I hope that’s not too irritating. The floor is yours to agree … or not!
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BD Rating – Difficulty 1.5* – Enjoyment 5*
A very good Thursday morning from Winnipeg where, while there is extreme heat and violent storms to the East of Manitoba, we are still waiting for Spring to start, this weekend perhaps, and it is supposed to be Summer in a months time!
For me, and I stress for me© (I have to say that for Terence), once again not half of a Dream Team Thursday, Silvanus was on Toughie duty yesterday, but no doubt that this is the work of a very benevolent Master of Brevity and, same as last week, there is not an error in my Difficulty rating. The usual one word clues and answers in the Quickie, and an appearance from the Queen but no swEetheart appearing in the back pager with an average of 4.97 words per clue. Also, like Dada, Ray T still seems to be making occasional use of a personal thesaurus. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Silvanus set us a crossword , the majority of which was at the friendlier end of the Toughie spectrum Continue reading “Toughie 3690”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31244
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ****
Deansleigh is on holiday (and probably without Internet access) this week so I’m standing in for him.
Thanks to today’s setter for a very enjoyable challenge which is fairly gentle. All three of the long anagrams fell quickly based on the enumerations and a few checkers so that was a big help in completing the grid.
Continue reading “DT 31244”
Sunday Toughie No 224 by Beam
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 10th of May 2026
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This puzzle was published on 10th May 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. Dada has given us an enjoyable solve this Sunday and now I present to you a full review of his puzzle. Hope to have your valuable feedback and comments. Continue reading “ST 3368 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3689 by Shabbo
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */2 – Enjoyment ****
We have another excellently-clued puzzle from Shabbo today. Apart from a piece of parsing that gave me brief pause, and a piece of not-too-obscure Classical knowledge, the puzzle is very gentle. The principal issue I had was in treating Shabbo’s wonderfully constructed clues as actual crossword clues, and forcing myself to break them down into their constituents, as opposed to just taking them as statements in their own right. My favourites today, amongst many contenders, are the 1a/5a combo, 19d and 27a. Thank you (again), Shabbo, for a very enjoyable puzzle.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ****
A damp start to the day here in Harpenden but at least it’s much needed wet stuff for the golf courses though the sun has just made a welcome appearance so hopefully not confined to barracks.
I’m pretty confident that today’s puzzle is unmistakably an Anthony Plumb production & very enjoyable it was too. By no means difficult but impeccably clued throughout with a nice mixture of clue types & the usual high quota of single letter additions or subtractions.
Plenty of ticks on my page including 6,15,19&22a + 16&23d but my favourite has to be the pun in the Quick crossword which may well prompt seeking out an old episode of Minder to watch later today. Please let us know which clues you liked best.
We also have the added treat of our old Thursday blogger over in t’other place & as ever with Shabbo the puzzle is very accessible, a light delight & highly recommended.
As usual there is a selection of music to enjoy or ignore.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED & the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons. Please leave a comment below telling us what you thought & how you got on with the puzzle.
Hello. Here are hints and explanations for today’s Telegraph crossword. This took me a little while to complete, but if you’re the kind of solver who does the anagrams first, rather than needing to leave them till later when there are lots of crossing letters, then you can probably knock off a difficulty star.
