October 18, 2012 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 861

Toughie No 861 by Giovanni

Investigoogle!

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

If the formula for a great Toughie was to choose a dreadful grid in which 14 clues have double unches and then throw in a few words that no-one, apart from Pommers, has ever heard of then I would have given this one five stars. It isn’t and I didn’t. I needed a lot of help from Chambers and Google to finish this, so thanks to Gazza and Crypticsue for the portmanteau neologism that I have used for the subheading.

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ST 2660

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2660

A full review by crypticsue

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

I read the clues through once, got a couple, read them through again and thought ‘oh heck’ and then,  suddenly and thankfully,  light dawned and this splendid puzzle ended up being solved in a very reasonable time.   Definitions Favourites

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DT 27000

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27000

Hints and tips by pommers

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

Hola from the Vega Baja.   Looking at the puzzle number I was half expecting some sort of trickery but there’s nothing there that I can see – but that means very little!
While solving I thought it was very tricky and was well surprised when I saw my time when I clicked the submit button, so 3* it will have to be. Some great stuff from RayT as usual, including the Queen and a fair bit of innuendo. Splendid fun and very nearly worth 5* enjoyment but I’ll save that in case his next one is even better!
Definitions are underlined in the clue (but I don’t know how to do the new way to hide the answers).
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