Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2659 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the more difficult clues and provide hints for them.
Month: September 2012
NTSPP – 138
Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 138
A Puzzle by Prolixic
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DT 26984 (Hints)
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26984 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Crossword Club
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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.
Calling Canterbury’s slightly mad hatters
Calling Canterbury’s slightly mad hatters
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John Pidgeon (Petitjean to Toughie fans, all manner of names to Cryptic solvers) will be running a series of Thursday morning crossword workshops in the village of Bridge, three miles from Canterbury, from October 11th. Lifelong solvers and novices will be equally welcome at these get-togethers, where John’s aim will be to improve your recognition of various types of clues, help you spot setters’ sleight of hand, and get you more quickly to the right answer.
Continue reading “Calling Canterbury’s slightly mad hatters”
Toughie 850
Toughie No 850 by Elgar
Whodunit??
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Whodunit?? It was that Elgar, m’Lud, and he was wearing his full Vlad the Impaler outfit, complete with new hob-nailed boots and a large pointed stake, and he had the scariest wicked glint in his eye….!
Toughie 850 – Grid
Toughie 850 – Grid
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Online solvers are not provided with the grid shading shown in the newspaper version, without which the clue for 15 across is very confusing. … Continue reading
DT 26978
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26978
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
I didn’t think I could possibly solve a crossword quicker than a time I am not allowed to mention here, but Saturday morning proved that apparently I can. The perfect puzzle for what was supposedly the last nice day of the summer, a quick solve and then out to enjoy some lovely sunshine.
DT 26983
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26983
Hints and tips by scchua
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Firstly thanks to BigDave for covering for me on Wednesday (busy week for him!).
This started off quite easily on the left side, but stalled a bit, but not much, with the remainder. I would therefore give it a 2-2.5* for difficulty, and 3* for enjoyment, with the caveat that these are always subjective. Thank you to setter. Definitions are underlined in the clues. “[xxx]” denotes a synonym or equivalent to “xxx”.
Toughie 849
Toughie No 849 by Warbler
Toughie? No way!
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Another non-tough Toughie! I found it so non-tough that I have given a 1* for difficulty for the first ever time. Did other solvers find it as easy?
DT 26982
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26982
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** (**********) – Enjoyment ****
The blog is a little late today as I missed the fact that Pommers was unavailable. You will have noticed that I have given two difficulty ratings. The first is for those, like me, that love Ray T’s puzzles and the other is for the usual suspects for whom every puzzle rates a galaxy of stars.