May 6, 2011 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 558

Toughie No 558 by Osmosis

Creatures of Habit

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

Osmosis is back with his fiendishly complex clues to torment us today. A very enjoyable puzzle with a few creatures featuring in the solutions, as well as some contemporary references and clever surface readings. One of the attractions of the Toughie for me is that we get up-to-date and topical clues in many of the puzzles (the Rooney clue in yesterday’s Giovanni made me giggle!). I particularly liked today’s offbeat clue at 25a, but quite a few of the others were equally clever.

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DT 26545

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26545

Hints and tips by Gazza

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

Friday’s puzzle is meant to be the toughest of the week and I think that this one lives up to its billing. I found it to be on a par with Giovanni’s Toughie yesterday for difficulty. There are some very entertaining clues and 3d on its own earns it a fourth enjoyment star from me.
If you want to see an answer drag your cursor through the space between the brackets under the clue.

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DT 26540

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26540

Hints and tips by Gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Morning All!. Despite the number of ‘two synonyms plus a letter insertion’ type clues that I encountered whilst reviewing this puzzle I actually enjoyed the solve quite a lot. There were a few very good clues although the ambiguity at 12 Across was quite surprising.
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