Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26257
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A pleasant enough stroll for a Thursday morning, very friendly for newer solvers, and very reminiscent of the Everyman puzzle from the Observer newspaper, presumably the same setter. Setting these puzzles does require a particular skill, despite what many may think, and our compiler today demonstrates this very well.
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53.740718-2.012274
Toughie No 365 by Excalibur
Vive la différence?
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *
Bufo is on holiday this week – he is doubly lucky!
Excalibur does seem to be the Marmite of Crosswordland.
Before you read this review I feel that it is only fair to disclose that personally I can’t stand Marmite.
The puzzle was certainly not enhanced by the use of one of the Telegraph’s cornery grids – these should have been consigned to the scrapheap many years ago. Take a look at any Times puzzle and you will see what I mean. For me the puzzle broke down into those four corners – the North and South East were very easy, but I got bogged down in the other two.
Favourite clues are highlighted in blue!
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. I will find this particularly interesting today, hence the sub-heading.
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52.254523-2.266838
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26253
A full review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Quite often if the Friday Cryptic and Toughie have been particularly testing, the Saturday Prize Puzzle can seem a bit easier in comparison. DT 26,252 and Toughie 362 were splendid examples of the compiler’s art so I started this Saturday’s puzzle expecting a less taxing challenge. How wrong I was, there was a complete range of interesting clues and more exciting for me, as I wasn’t aware of such a thing until I became a fan of Big Dave’s blog, was that the puzzle is a Pangram! Thanks too to Gnomethang for giving me the chance to practice my reviewing skills.
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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