Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2561
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Nothing written next to this one on the day – let’s see what emerges as I write up the explanations. As ever: lots of classy clues, including three special hidden words. And a possible indication that BG has changed his mind about a minor cruciverbal controversy.
A quick plug for a bit of my own work: my second Church Times puzzle, edited by Don Manley, is available here. 14 of the 28 clues are my own, the rest are changed, anything from slightly to completely.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26396
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Those who actually buy the paper are probably fed up with hearing moans about CluedUp (or whatever it’s called now) but here goes again. Their usual way of signalling that an answer extends over more than one clue is not very good (as in 1a yesterday) but at least there’s usually some indication. Today 1a appears to require just a straight 9-letter answer – I spent ages looking at in vain, left it, only to find at 25a that a second word is required.
This is a typical Giovanni puzzle. Let us know what you thought of it in a comment!
The answers, if you find the hints inadequate, are hidden between the brackets under the clues – just highlight the space between the brackets to reveal.
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Toughie No 457 by Kcit
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I found this far more difficult than I’ve come to expect from Kcit. To some extent this was a consequence of the grid in which there are less checked letters than usual and a lot of first letters that are unchecked. I struggled with the last few answers and eventually had to “cheat” to get 17 down. There appears to be an error in 15 across.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26391
A full review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Once again, Cephas provided us with a most enjoyable crossword for a fine Saturday morning – a very nice mix of clues – a couple of which caused confusion for some on the day – but I thoroughly enjoyed both the solving and the subsequent analysis for this review.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26395
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Looks like today’s puzzle is by one of our mystery setters. It was nice to see such an open grid – the Telegraph could do with having many more like this.
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Toughie No 456 by Micawber
The Return of the Master
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
I think that I’m quite lucky to review the Wednesday Toughies. This is the second Wednesday appearance in a few weeks of my favourite Toughie setter, Micawber. He’s a master of elegant, witty clues and he can make his puzzles challenging without having to resort to very obscure words. I loved it.
Let us know your opinion in a comment, and please remember to click on one of the stars below (one if you hated it, five if you thought it was brilliant or a number between the two).
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26394
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
If you enjoy charades, you’ll love this puzzle. At least 17 of the 28 clues involve this type of clue. I must say that it was far more enjoyable to solve than it was to create hints for. After all, there are only so many ways to describe a charade.
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Toughie No 455 by Busman
I’d rather take the train!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Once again Busman delivers a Toughie puzzle at the easy end of the spectrum. I didn’t like this any more or less than today’s regular cryptic.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26393
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
From some of the General Knowledge type answers today it looks as if one of the mystery setters from Thursdays has been re-assigned to Tuesdays. I’ve given this one four stars for difficulty – this means that it’s my opinion that it’s a bit more difficult than the average Telegraph Cryptic (and quite a bit more difficult than yesterday’s which I would only have given one star). But, especially after the discussion yesterday, I would like to reiterate that this is just my personal opinion – it’s not written in stone and you are perfectly at liberty to disagree.
There are an awful lot of abbreviations used in this puzzle (see 1d) and, to be honest, by the time I finished writing the review I was a bit fed up with writing the word abbreviation. Let us know what you thought in a comment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26392
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Normal service is resumed from the Monday Maestro, an enjoyable but non too taxing solve. However once again I don’t expect many of you to need the blog, so hopefully we might see some more escapees from the CC. I was tempted to give this one star for difficulty but decided against it, anticipating howls of protest. Favourite clues, 7d and 22d.
You can see the full answer just by highlighting the space between the curly brackets.
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