Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26086 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This prize puzzle is even easier than usual, so there should be a lot of happy people today!
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 19th November.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2509
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Quite a tricky Sunday puzzle by current standards – especially if like me you don’t see 1A on first look.
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Toughie No 251 by Notabilis
The right stuff
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
A good, solid and challenging workout from Notabilis, aka Kea, aka a long-established Times setter. I made pretty rapid progress to complete the NW and SE corners, but the other two gave all kinds of trouble. In almost all cases it was down to me not spotting the right things, although one hold-up was due to not knowing the reference at 18dn.
Quality setting throughout, and definitely on the tough side of tough.
Please let us have your comments and questions; and don’t forget the curly brackets contain the answers – left-click and drag the cursor over them and all will be revealed.
In a slight deviation from the norm I’ve shown in blue any clues that rocked my boat. You will no doubt have others.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26085
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
We have a fairly difficult puzzle today with a couple of words new to me, but it’s very fair and entertaining in the usual Giovanni style. If you found this one tricky then I hope the hints help; if you found it a piece of cake, then try today’s Toughie – I guarantee that you won’t find that so easy!
As usual the answers are hidden so that you don’t see them by mistake. To reveal one, select the white space inside the curly brackets beneath the clue.
I think that this is the sort of puzzle that should generate lots of discussion – so let’s go for a good crop of comments!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26080
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This prize puzzle turned out to be very popular. It was easy enough for the newer solvers and generated a few smiles among those more experienced. I think the message to Cephas is quite clear – “Please Sir, can we have some more?”
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Toughie No 250 by Shamus
Tough Stuff!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Very much at the top end of the scale today from Shamus. A puzzle of beautiful construction but some hard-to-parse answers. I was convinced for a while that there might be a faulty anagram at 18 across, but Gazza came to the rescue, and analysed it correctly for me.
Elegant cluemanship as always from Shamus, very much in the Giovanni mould.
As usual, the answers are hidden in between the squiggly brackets. Highlighting them reveals all. You can rate the puzzle using our star system at the end of the blog, and of course have your say and give your opinion after the blog as well. A reminder that first-time posters sometimes take a wee while to appear as they have to be approved, in order to prevent the board being hijacked by spammers.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26084
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Normal service has been resumed. The usual Thursday outing from J. With its typical mix of clue types and complexity. Not too difficult, not too easy, perhaps just right? As such I can’t find anything contentious in this crossword, but perhaps you can?
If you are a first time visitor to the blog you can find the answers by highlighting the space between the curly brackets. As usual please feel free to leave a comment.
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Toughie No 249 by Excalibur
A Game of Two Halves
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
I got the impression with this one that some care had been taken in the construction of the across clues, but that many of the down ones appeared forced with poor surface readings. Overall there was not a lot to get excited about. Let us know what you thought via a comment.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets. Just select the white space inside the brackets if you want to reveal one.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26083
Weak after the event ……..
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
After the ferocity of last Wednesday, we are back to a more reasonable puzzle that I am sure most of you will enjoy. The clues are nicely written and should not prove too much trouble for the majority of solvers. However, we are here to point you in the right direction, if a nudge is needed. Apart from a couple of dodgy anagram indicators, I found it very reasonable fare.
However, this is where I get to be controversial. As I have said, this is quite an elegant puzzle with the anagram clues invariably written with a little thought and style. However, this puzzle is almost entirely filled with these and word-sum clues, of which there are over a dozen. It provides an ideal challenge for those learning to solve cryptics, but I prefer a variety of clue types, with an occasional mind-stretcher. This sits firmly at the opposite ends of the universe inhabited by last Wednesday’s and I am happy for these puzzles, as long as we are treated to an occasional difficult one.
The answers, if you are really stuck, are hidden between the squiggly brackets and highlighting the space between them will reveal the answer.
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Toughie No 248 by Busman
On a Roll
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Not overly difficult but an enjoyable start to the day. I rattled through this and then got on with the blog, while being continually harassed by three new additions to the family – kittens!
I haven’t done the normal daily cryptic yet, but in brief conversation with Gazza, he indicates that it is actually more difficult than this. So why not try both and let us know what you thought.
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