Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25966 – Review
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
A pretty easy puzzle, which will have disappointed those who want a bit more to chew over on a Saturday. In its favour, the surface readings are nearly all convincing. The grid seems to be a direct match of a Times one, dreamt up by their former xwd editor Edmund Akenhead, with a big black E as a “signature”. It’s now a bit eccentric at the Times – their only grid with any fully checked answers – but much better than some of the DT ones.
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Toughie No 174 by Firefly
Teacher…. Mother…….Secret Lover
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
As the warm-up man for Big Dave and his battle with Excalibur tomorrow, I am usually full of praise for the Thursday setters. I am also a big fan of Firefly in his other setting alias, but for some reason, this is just not my cup of coffee (I can’t stand tea!!). I was quite looking forward to it, but just found that some of the clues lacked the invention and difficulty that we normally get from him.
For some reason I am reminded of the end of an epsiode of The Simpsons, where they do a send-up of Stephen King’s The Shining. I had a tough night last night with the heat and lack of air, despite having all the windows open and running the risk of bats flying in. However, I was looking forward to logging in and having a good battle today, but like Homer I was disappointed and the urge to kill rises…..(actually the urge to go and have a snooze rises!)
ARVE Error: need id and provider
Anyway, enough whimsy, let’s go. My basic feeling that this was probably no tougher than a normal daily puzzle. I was quite convinced for some time that there was a mistake in the grid, but then my recent stays as a guest of the NHS came to the rescue. Should Toughie puzzles have four letter anagrams? Continue reading “Toughie 174”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25970
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Nothing too taxing today, but a pleasant challenge with a lot of nice surface readings.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space to reveal them.
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