Toughie No 308 by Osmosis
Nailing Jelly to a Wall
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Half the fun of an Osmosis puzzle, for me, is untangling some of the very convoluted wordplay with which he populates his puzzles. This one is no exception, and it also gives us a number of laughs. I really enjoyed it, but there are a number of questionable indicators (and one very dodgy homophone) which may provoke the odd comment!
Let us know what you thought of it – all comments are welcome.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26172
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Once again Jay delivers an excellent puzzle in the Telegraph genre.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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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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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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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26170
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A gentle, pleasant start to the week.
As usual each answer is hidden within curly brackets. Please highlight the white space for it to show up.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2524 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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As with Saturday’s Prize puzzle, no assessment or comment from me, starting this week.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 26th February.
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NTSPP – 002 Review
Odd One Out by Prolixic
A Star is Born
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I understand that this is Prolixic’s first published crossword and it’s excellent. He easily succeeds in his stated intention of producing a range of clues which enable all blog readers to have a go. If he can manage a puzzle of this quality on his first attempt, what are they going to be like when he’s really got his eye in?
The theme is of course crossword setters (as defined in 16a). There are nine pseudonyms in total, of which eight are regular setters of either the DT Cryptic or Toughie or both, with only our very own Anax (the Odd One Out of the title) not appearing in the Telegraph (although we all believe that he should, and that it’s only a matter of time!). I’ve prefixed each of the nine names in the answers with an asterisk.
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 002
Odd One Out by Prolixic
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This is the second in a series of additional weekend puzzles.
After the ridiculous fuss created last week, we should be returning to calmer waters today. Prolixic started by leaving comments on the site, and then rather foolishly tried to drink me under the table at the White Horse a few weeks back (he thought he had a chance because I had already been there for about three hours!). Following this meeting he has written his first review and today we present his debut cryptic puzzle.
The puzzle has a theme, which you should discover fairly quickly, and this will help with quite a few of the clues. To say any more would spoil that “penny drop” moment.
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Latest News
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A few items of news.
Some of you may have noticed that I have changed the title of the site by dropping the word “Telegraph”. I have done this for two reasons. … Continue reading
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26169 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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A few hints for today’s Prize puzzle.
Starting this week, there will be no ratings or comment until the full analysis is published.
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, 25th February.
Continue reading “DT 26169 – Hints”