Toughie No 366 by Firefly
Sweetness with a bit of bite
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
[Today we reach a rather special milestone – this is the 1,000th post published on the blog! BD]
Despite racing through this Firefly offering there were some quite tricky clues to negotiate and two I couldn’t immediately grasp (6a and 18d – thanks to BD for the pointers). For the most part the clues were straightforward and unspectacular but, despite a minor quibble with the presentation of its anagram fodder, I thought 6d was very nicely done, while 25a gets my COD vote. There was one area that held me up – the SE corner was by far the hardest to crack, even with 7d and 27a offering several letters.
My favourite clues are in blue and it’s usually the case they don’t quite match with yours, so please point out your own favourites.
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Continue reading “Toughie 366”
53.408488-2.149293
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2538
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Continue reading “ST 2538”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26258
Hints and tips by Gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Morning All!
A big thank you to Gazza for allowing me to make use of his chair for the day.
On with today’s puzzle. Giovanni, as you would expect, has delivered some finely constructed clues with very smooth surface readings. I found the difficulty to be greater than last week but really enjoyed the challenge. The tiny niggle I have is at 21a where not only is the answer not widely known (I would suggest) but the solver is left with a choice of two wordplay elements after filling all the checking letters. How many of you had to search to confirm the answer?
Speaking of answers, if you are new to the blog you can, as ever, find them by dragging your cursor between the curly brackets. 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.
Continue reading “DT 26258”
25.35482651.183884