Puzzles for Saturday 8th of October
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A big thank you to Phil McNeill, the Telegraph’s Puzzles Editor, for kindly providing pdfs for today’s cryptic, quick and GK puzzles.
Month: October 2011
Toughie 646
Toughie No 646 by Micawber
Perseverance Pays…..
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Greetings from the Calder Valley. When I found out last night that I was getting Micawber today, I was filled with joy as he is one of my favourite setters and rarely fails to disappoint. However, it took me exactly 9 hours and 13 minutes to get into the Telegraph website to get a copy, including a stint at 4 am trying to get it. Come on Telegraph techies, something has got to be done, it just isn’t good enough.
Rant over. This is a simply splendid puzzle that was more than worth the wait. Lots of laugh aloud moments and the odd forehead slap as well. As I have said before, with setters like Micawber, Dada and Elgar around, the future for crosswords is bright. So many brilliant clues today, it seems a shame to pick the best. Looking at the completed grid, there are odd words here and there and I did wonder if we had a Nina, but it seems not.
ST 2608
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2608
A full review by Gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The usual Virgilius excellence again this Sunday. The standout clue for me was the &Lit at 8d.
DT 26677
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26677
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The on-line site, far from improving, seems to be getting worse and worse. I dread to think how much time has been wasted in futile attempts to access the puzzles.
This very entertaining puzzle from Giovanni is on a par for difficulty with Wednesday’s Toughie. Let us know how you fared with it.
Good luck to Wales tomorrow morning!
DT 26672
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26672
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating –Difficulty * – Enjoyment **/***
Our Saturday Mysteron provided us with another straightforward but enjoyable start to Saturday morning. However did it contain, as Prolixic pointed out, a hidden message commenting on the problems with the Telegraph Puzzles site? Have a look at the solutions to 26a, 5d and 3d and see what you think.
Toughie 645
Toughie No 645 by Dada
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
When I started I thought this was going provide a struggle. In fact I found it very straightforward but, just in case I was having a good morning and was on the setter’s wavelength, I have left the difficulty rating at 3* after toying with 2*
DT 26676
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26676
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Another excellent puzzle from Ray T that took more time to download from the online site than it did to solve – but the download time was dwarfed by the length of time that it took to submit. We have been promised that by next week all will be resolved – but don’t hold your breath!
Toughie 644
Toughie No 644 by Giovanni
Wisdom of The Fool
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This is only marginally more difficult than one of Giovanni’s Friday back-pagers though it probably has more clues where a smattering of general knowledge is useful. As is often the case I got both long anagrams from the enumeration first and worked out the fodder afterwards (which is why I’m not very keen on long multi-word anagrams). There’s a factual error in 2d but that didn’t impair my enjoyment of the puzzle.
Tell us what you thought of it and please remember to indicate how entertaining you found it by clicking on one of the stars below.
DT 26675
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26675
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. First I would like to say a big thanks to the DT crossword editor, Phil McNeill, for emailing me the puzzle at midnight last night, otherwise you might not have had a blog today! Also thanks to Libellule for organising it.
As for the puzzle – a bit trickier than the last couple of weeks, I thought, so I’ve gone for 3* difficulty. Although about 80% of it went in easy enough I sort of ground to a halt on the last 3 or 4 so I’ll blame it on brain fade at 0100CEST! The only thing wrong with this puzzle is a distinct lack of picture opportunities but I’ve had a go (and managed a car)!
Toughie 643
Toughie No 643 by Petitjean
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the …..!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
A relatively easy solve of a puzzle that will not rank as one of Petitjean’s best.