August 28, 2010 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

NTSPP – 029 (Review)

NTSPP – 029 (Review)

Strains of Blue by Radler

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This was an excellent puzzle from Radler with lots to get your teeth into and savour. It felt a lot like a Guardian crossword and was definitely in the Toughie spectrum. My favourite clues are shown below in blue.

There is a theme to this puzzle, alluded to by the title. Although the preamble says that finding the theme will assist with the nine themed clues, in practice, I think its is essential to find the theme to assist with solving the crossword as the definitions for some of the themed clues are very wide and would not lead you to the answers without the theme to guide you. The theme is that of royal houses.

I did have a few niggles with some of the clues. I have tried to indicate these fairly and they did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the puzzle.

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NTSPP – 029 (Comments)

Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 029

Strains of Blue by Radler

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Welcome to the twenty ninth in our series of weekly puzzles.

This week we have another puzzle from Radler.  There is an underlying theme, and working that out will help with the puzzle but is not essential.

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DT 26331 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26331 (Hints)

Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club

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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.

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.

A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 2nd September.

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