December 27, 2010 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Enigmatic Toughie 100002

Enigmatic Toughie No 100002 by Elgar

A Perimetrical Jigsaw

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BD Rating – Difficulty *****Enjoyment *****

Hope you’ve all had a grand holiday and are ready for some serious solving. This will probably sit amongst the toughest of the Toughies and features Elgar at his most devious.

If you have never solved a puzzle like this before, don’t be put off. These have been featured in the Guardian as Prize Puzzles about four or five times a year set by the venerable Araucaria. They usually have answers that start with each letter of the alphabet.

The first thing to remember is that although you are solving all of the clues without any checking letters, the clues are in alphabetical order of their answers, so the early clues are likely to begin with A, B or C and the end clues, probably start with letters from T to Z.

To solve this one, I would suggest solving the seven and ten letter clues, which should allow you to place the solutions in the grid. Once the grid is complete, a quotation will appear round the perimeter. In case you are really stuck, the quote will be placed at the end and you can highlight it.

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DT 26433

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26433

Hints and tips by Libellule

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment **

Rufus is on holiday today, so we have a crossword from a mystery setter. Although I found this more difficult than I would normally expect for a Monday, my enjoyment of it was marred somewhat by what I felt were a few clumsy and forced clues, 17d and 24d for example.

If you cannot work out the answer from the hints, please highlight the space between the curly brackets.

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