Toughie No 301 by Warbler
Almost perfect!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Tilsit was rushed into hospital by ambulance, with the blues and twos working overtime. He’s back home now, but not yet fit enough to file his review.
I know it’s a bit late but I have put something together. As I mentioned in the comments, for me this was so very nearly a five-star puzzle – a handful of weaker clues held me back from that accolade. It was very nice to be able to welcome Warbler herself to the blog – one of only two women currently on the Telegraph panel of cryptic setters (and I’m sure we all know who the other one is, so I won’t be holding my breath for an appearance!).
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26161
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Some of you will love this, for example on CluedUp at the moment it is showing 5 stars and 5 smiles, but I thought at times it was a bit clumsy. We have some weird surface readings at times, the abbreviation for son turns up three times, the cryptic definitions are only barely cryptic, and the use of final or first letters in clues is spread throughout the crossword.
If you want to see the answers all you have to do us highlight the space between the curly brackets. If you have an opinion on this crossword, please share it with us.
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Toughie No 300 by Excalibur
Not a Load of Laughs
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
There’s not a lot of variety in today’s puzzle with a lot of clues being container types, where you have to put x (or an anagram of it) inside y (or an anagram of it). Actually with this setter they’re mostly expressed backwards, as “y, x included”. I didn’t really enjoy it that much, though there were a few nice clues.
Let us know what you thought of it via a comment, and please don’t forget to vote by clicking on one of the stars at the bottom of the review.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26160
Container, contents and charades
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Tilsit is back at the hospital this morning, but this time as the courier not the patient. On hearing this Prolixic made an offer that was difficult for me to refuse – and one that by now he might be regretting – and has written today’s blog. BD
Today’s crossword is brought to you courtesy of the letter C. Most of the clues are charades (add two words together) or container and content clues (put one word inside another) with very little other variety in the clues. Those looking for lots of full blown anagrams will be disappointed. This lack of variety reduced the enjoyment of the puzzle for me.
Although there is a lot of repetition, our Wednesday Wizard is, as ever, fair in his cluing and there are some nice surface readings.
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Toughie No 299 by Notabilis
Circuits and Bumps
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Once again an excellent puzzle from Notabilis (who was one of those present last Saturday). This one took quite a while to unravel, but as ever the clues are honest and fair.
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. The answers can be revealed by selecting the space between the curly brackets.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26159
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed by today’s puzzle. The cryptic definitions aren’t that brilliant and some of the surface readings don’t make a great deal of sense. You may well disagree, and, whether you do or not, we’d love to get a comment from you.
As always, the answers are hidden between the curly brackets under the relevant clue – just drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets to reveal.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26158
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A none-too-difficult puzzle except for a couple of clues such as 31a and 16d that require a literary background and 2d and 4d that are from ancient history.
As usual answers are within the curly brackets and to see them you have to drag the cursor across the white space.
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 2522 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I’m still recovering from yesterday’s excesses, and still away from home struggling to master my sister’s laptop so this will be a very brief post. Tilsit and I both enjoyed the meet (I put that bit in to annoy Giovanni – see the Crossword Centre Forum) and had a nice day (I put that bit in to annoy Elgar – see the same forum). We were particularly pleased to see Prolixic and Kcit – the latter being over here from New Zealand.
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, 12th February.
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ScrewedUp News – Feb 06
Edition 24
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Its been months (Nov 29 2009 to be exact) since we had a ScrewedUp News post.… Continue reading
Cruciverbalists’ Convention
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Tilsit and I will be among those present in the White Horse pub in Parson’s Green, London from 11am till late. Drop in and have a drink with us if you are in town today. Full details can be found here:
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