Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2543
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
It’s the fourth of July and the puzzle is from a setter who likes to do themes and has worked in the US for the last decade or so. So no surprise that there’s stuff about Independence Day and the USA, past and present. I guess this is a pretty wide thematic range, but I’m still impressed by the 3 very relevant 15-letter acrosses and a grid where the effect of the thematic material is small – the single extra black square in the top and bottom rows. (The 3-word columns at the edges don’t matter as there are only 29 grid entries.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26288
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
It’s not the easiest Giovanni today, but it’s entertaining as usual. Let us know what you think of it in a comment.
As always the answers are concealed between the curly brackets under the clues. Drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets to reveal.
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Toughie No 385 by Giovanni
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I enjoyed this puzzle and thought it was the right standard for a toughie. Although there were a lot of less common words used I didn’t find any of them overly obscure and I finished it without recourse to dictionaries, etc. However, I didn’t care for the grid with its four poorly-connected corners. I had problems with the bottom right but this was caused by my carelessly writing the author’s name in at 23 down and thence being unable to solve the acrosses.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26283
A full review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Saturday’s offering from Cephas was, depending on how you solved it : a “challenging”, “tricky”, “enjoyable” “stinker”. I had a couple of moments of “how can I review this when I can’t get two of the clues” but some careful reading made me realise what was required and I finished in one fairly quick sitting. Didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous two days’ splendid offerings but I would say it was challenging but doable with cogitation – posters seemed to find a cycle ride along the Canal du Midi or a walk round a nature reserve or even just a nice cup of tea did the trick. It was nice to see that while Big Dave was taking a well deserved rest over a few pints at the White Horse, there were plenty of others ready to give assistance with those needing help with the trickier clues. There were over 200 comments on this puzzle, so I hope my review will help those who struggled to make sense of it all.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26287
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Sometimes when you sit back and look at a puzzle again in order to review it you find that it is better on second reading. This one wasn’t.
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Toughie No 384 by Firefly
Bog Snorkelling
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I enjoyed this one. It was worth getting bogged down in the top left-hand corner for the “aha” moment when I got 1d. I do wish that CluedUp could manage to print the full enumeration for a multi-part answer against the clue, rather than making you hunt around for the various bits, but this has improved since the days when it didn’t even tell you against the clue itself that it was multi-part, so I mustn’t grumble too much.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26286
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another fine puzzle from Jay, our regular Wednesday setter.
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Toughie No 383 by Cephas
Mother Hubbard should have looked here!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
While not one of the more difficult Toughies, well it is Tuesday after all, there’s still plenty to savour in this puzzle!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26285
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **– Enjoyment ***
Ray T must have taken pity on us this week because this puzzle is not as tricky as his usual offerings. The downside is that, amongst the clever and amusing clues, there are several cryptic definitions which are a bit weak. As always we’re keen to hear your views, so let us have a comment.
The answers are hidden between the curly brackets under the relevant clue. Just highlight the space between the brackets to reveal.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26284
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty **– Enjoyment ***
A typical Rufus crossword to start the week, nothing too complicated (and I hope contentious). However I do wonder whether the definition in 10a should be plural.
Addendum: I have pondered this and done some checking: n. pl. fruit or fruits, fruit is viable both as a single or plural noun. I stand corrected.
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