Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 128
Projected Glory by Alchemi
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Month: July 2012
DT 26924 (Hints)
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26924 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Crossword Club
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Don’t forget that today is the last day that you can enter our July prize crossword.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided for them.
Toughie 810
Toughie 810 by Elgar
Feeling Vlad All Over!
Hints and tips by Crypticsue and Tilsit (aka Ginger and Fred)
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Matron has given permission for Tilsit to return to light duties but, as that is not a description befitting today’s crossword, the double act is back! Richard and Judy are busy, Richard is off round his local Tesco and Judy is checking out Oddbins. So Crypticsue has put one her finest chiffon and Tilsit his top hat and tails (think it’s the right way round).
Once again, Vlad has provided us with a top level toughie with lots of tricky clues, groans and d’oh moments which combine to make a very fine brain stretching. It does have a blog-relevant NINA* which helps no end to round up the ‘stragglers’. We both found this right at the top end of things, and although we don’t talk times as a policy here, quite some time has spent wrestling with this.
DT 26923
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26923
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. Pommette’s in the UK again this week so, as I’m at a loose end (!), Gazza has kindly given me the opportunity to blog this Giovanni puzzle. Not sure I really enjoyed it all though, which is unusual for one of his! I thought that there were some very nice clues and some enjoyable penny-drop moments but also some slightly dodgy bits (IMHO) and the gratuitous inclusion of some rather obscure words. Maybe it’s just me being a grumpy old man this morning. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it.
DT 26918
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26918
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Morning All!. Discussions among the bloggers suggested that we were expecting a ‘Bastille Day Special’ given the date of the 14th July. Sadly that was not to be!.
Toughie 809
Toughie No 809 by Shamus
It’s all Greek to me!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I breezed through this until I reached the SW corner. Up to then I was giving it barely 2* for difficulty and then 23 across and 21 down brought me to a complete standstill until I eventually dredged up the answer to 21 down. That left 23 across for which I had to resort to making up words from the wordplay until I came up with an answer that seemed reasonable even though I’d never heard of it. Despite my difficulties getting these last couple of answers I decided on 3* for difficulty on the basis that the rest of you will be more familiar with Greek cuisine than I am.
DT 26922
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26922
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Ray T is back again. A bit low on innuendo, but the Queen is still there.
ST 2647
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2647
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Morning All! This is the puzzle from Sunday 8th July. I found it reasonably straightforward but once again there were some lovely smooth surface readings.
Toughie 808
Toughie No 808 by Firefly
Everything but the Kitchen Sink
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
On first read-through I thought that this was going to be a stinker but I actually got through it in average time for a Wednesday. There are two themes based on two distinct meanings of 1a – it wasn’t until I came to write the blog that I realised that the setter had helpfully differentiated between the two by putting one set of references in quotes (i.e. ‘1ac’) and the other without quotes. Thanks to Firefly for the entertainment.
Please let us know, via a comment, how you got on and take the time to record your assessment of the puzzle by clicking on one of the stars below.
DT 26921
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26921
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Today we have the Wednesday Wizard with his slightly trickier than usual hat on! Some very clever stuff and very enjoyable as the pennies dropped but not quite the “Stinker” as predicted yesterday! There again, you may all disagree with my assessment, wouldn’t be the first time! Won’t mention the weather apart from to say it did rain here yesterday morning – for a whole hour!