February 23, 2010 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 307

Toughie No 307 by Petitjean

Just the recipe!

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

Greetings from the Calder Valley and thanks to Big Dave and the others for covering for me during my short stay in hospital. Normally Big Dave and I play a guessing game just after midnight each Toughie Day trying to work out who the setter is. (Sad people that we are!) I looked at today’s just after the witching hour and came up with two suspects, but neither felt quite right. It therefore came as a pleasant surprise to find out that we were in the hands of a new setter today.

So welcome Petitjean, and judging by today’s encouraging start, I would think that we may be in for some entertaining puzzles. A couple of tiny gripes about one or two clues, but this is a most welcome addition to the Toughie panel with a puzzle much more worthy of the title than several recent ones. I look forward to the next one. Many of today’s Across clues or answers each had a food bent, although on occasion it was a little farci, as they say in France

As usual, your comments are welcomed. There is a delay for first-time posters having their posts published as they are moderated to remove spammers. You can also grade the puzzle yourself using the star system just below. Click in the star that represents how you felt about the puzzle.

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DT 26171

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26171

Hints and tips by Gazza

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

Today we have an entertaining puzzle from Shamus (I’m assuming that it’s by Shamus – apologies if I’m wrong). As I write, Clued Up is showing it with five stars for difficulty – I don’t think that our regular correspondents will find is as difficult as that. Let us know, via a comment, whether Clued Up is right or I’m right!
For new readers, the answer to each clue is hidden between the curly brackets under the clue; drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets to reveal it.

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