July 23, 2009 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

DT 25984 – Review

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25984 – Review

A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

More difficult than usual – I certainly struggled with 21A, as the S_R_T_ER with possible choices for the blanks takes up quite a bit of the print-out’s white space. A slightly unsatisfactory grid – answers like 1 and 10 are underchecked, but ones like 12, 15 and 17 are overchecked.

And now for something completely different – a bit of shameless advertising: Next Thursday, I’m cycling 60 miles along the Grand Union and Regents Canal towpaths in aid of Helen and Douglas House, a home providing respite and end of life care for children and young adults with life-shortening conditions, as well as support and friendship for their families.

If you would like to sponsor me for the ride (or read more), please visit http://www.justgiving.com/peters-canal-ride/

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Toughie 186

Toughie No 186 by Elgar

Outrageous Stuff!

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

Unless you know different, as a woman with big teeth used to say on TV, today’s Toughie breaks new ground.   I don’t think that crosswords in the DT have had more than one or two cross-referencing clues.   Today’s had quite a few and that added to the fun.   Obviously you had to solve these to proceed further with other clues.

This was a Toughie to savour and it had everything including some absolutely top-drawer clues.   My only tiny grumble was that where answers were linked – like  22, 10 and 23, 2 down, in other publications the complete indications are shown at the first answer.  It just confused me a little.

Where to start?   Probably with the three letter answers.  They are quite good ways to get into the puzzles with quite friendly clues.

What did you think about it?    Feel free to comment after the analysis.

The clue answers are contained within the curly brackets.   Highlighting the space between them will reveal the answer.  If you are posting a comment for the first time, there may be a slight delay while your first post is approved.  This is purely a precaution against the board being hijacked by spammers.

On with the motley and let’s go!

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DT 25988

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25988

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

We come down to earth after yesterday’s classic, but this is still a good puzzle with some very entertaining clues.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space to reveal them. And, as always, we’d love to hear your views on the puzzle – just leave a comment.

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