October 20, 2009 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 236

Toughie No 236 by Excalibur

In The Doldrums

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment **

You are either going to like this or hate it. Me I hated it. I guessed what I was dealing with after two or three clues and plodded on feeling older and wearier as I realised what each answer was. When I had finished I felt as if I had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

Do we have any volunteers who might want to review an Excalibur Toughie? There has to be someone who likes this style of crossword and would be able to put in a good word.

Lets hope the normal cryptic is more enjoyable.

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DT 26064

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26064

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

The first thing to say about today’s puzzle is that there are no cricketing terms at all (well, 26a could relate to a cricket team, but I’ve chosen to go with football instead). Apart from that we have a novel anagram indicator in 7d and a strange, but entertaining, clue at 16d.

As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space inside the brackets to reveal them, if you need to.

All comments, whether from seasoned campaigners or first-timers, are very welcome.

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