This weekend, I am going away for a couple of days. Everything was planned until I had a power cut this morning. On rebooting the machine, I found that the hard drive was corrupted and I had to reload Windows. Two more power cuts and a lot of thumping of mouse and keyboard later I have managed to get back online, but with no time to do today’s hints.… Continue reading
Month: May 2009
Toughie 147
Toughie No 147 by Elgar
Another five star performance from Elgar
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Once again Elgar serves up a Toughie that is worthy of the name. Always tough, always enjoyable, each answer has to be carefully extracted. Even after I had completed it, I still had to sort out the wordplay for four of the clues.
DT 25929
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25929
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
A tricky crossword today, but with some very good clues.
ST 2483 – Review
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2483 – Review
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
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DT 25924 – Review
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25924
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Given a 4-star difficulty rating mainly bcause it took me a long time to be sure of 9A, so the total time was about double my average for this puzzle. One of those rather odd grids that’s perfectly OK apart from the over-unched 5-letter words, but includes a whopping 16 7-letter answers, and only three other word-lengths. It’s easy to see changes that would both increase the variety of answer lengths and fix the under-unching.
Toughie 146
Toughie No 146 by Notabilis
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
An elegant and challenging puzzle from one of the best crossword setters and a personal favourite of mine. Some very clever and thought-provoking clues mixed with accessible ones provide a good challenge for solvers. The clues have beautiful surface readings as well.
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DT 25928
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25928
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Nothing too obscure or contentious today – what we have is a straightforward puzzle which should not frustrate regular solvers for very long, but which contains some entertaining clues.
Toughie 145
Toughie No 145 by Warbler
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A definite toughie today with several words which were new to me and a couple of familiar words with meanings that I did not previously know. All in all it is a fair and entertaining challenge. It definitely helps a lot if you can crack 5d and 9d early on.
DT 25927
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25927
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This is the sort of puzzle that you come to expect in the Telegraph. Nothing too difficult, no awkward constructs, no obsolete or obscure words, no silly phrases, no proper nouns, no isolated corners, and certainly no sign of those love ’em or hate ’em unches! Just a good, honest puzzle. Well done our Wednesday setter.
Toughie 144
Toughie No 144 by Giovanni
Another great puzzle from Giovanni!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
When I see that Giovanni is the setter, I know I am in for a difficult but thoroughly enjoyable puzzle. Today is no exception, even allowing for the fact that this interestingly shaped grid is more-or-less four puzzles in one. There were a handful of easier clues – just as well or you might never get started – but nothing so difficult that, even if you didn’t know the answer, you couldn’t work it out from the wordplay.