April 10, 2010 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

NTSPP – 009 Review

NTSPP – 009 Review

Spot the Links by Tilsit

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

Given the preamble’s listing of 7 “true” and 4 “sort of” theme answers, plus the task of identifying extra words in all but one of the clues, I feared this was going to be a nightmare to solve, but it turned into a puzzle of moderate difficulty and some exceptionally imaginative clue-writing. I really do hope Tilsit has some more puzzles in the bank because if they’re anything like this we’re in for bags of fun in the tradition of the best cryptic crosswords.

On a first read through the clues only 2d gave an immediate answer and, strangely, I didn’t even notice the extra word! This is a feature that shone through consistently – in nearly all cases those extras were well hidden. It was a closer examination of 3d that got me into the theme (cleverly alluded to in the title) and after that the fears of a monster solve proved unfounded.

My favourite clues are in blue and I’ve added extra “click to highlight” parts which will reveal the extra word in each clue.

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NTSPP – 009

Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 009

Spot the Links by Tilsit

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Welcome to the ninth in our series of weekly puzzles.

Ages ago, before the start of this series, Tilsit promised to write a puzzle for the blog.  Well, at long last here it is!

There is a theme, which is particularly appropriate for this weekend (I’ll say no more before I give the game away).  What I will say is that you must read the preamble before starting – if you don’t you may finish up scratching your head for quite a while.

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DT 26211 – Hints

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26211 – Hints

Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club

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The usual few hints to get you started.

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, 15th April.

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