Toughie No 865 by Excalibur
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Big Dave for standing in for me again last week. I appear to have left him with a brute of a puzzle but I have to emphasise that I had no prior warning that it was going to be so difficult. However I feel certain that he would have preferred to blog that puzzle rather than this week’s Excalibur puzzle. I thought that this was a reasonable puzzle which took me an above-average time. But steady progress was made once I’d got my brain into ‘solving an Excalibur puzzle’ mode and was able to deal with the unconventional order of words used especially in container clues (or Yoda-speak as Big Dave calls it [I can’t claim the credit for that one, Tilsit was the first to use it back in July 2009. BD]).
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2661
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***– Enjoyment ****
After the extra superb puzzle of the week before, it was an ‘average’ Virgilius this week, although of course, miles better in both entertainment and difficulty than many other setters ‘average’ crosswords. My particular favourite has to be 22d, which I liked even more after I had read Big Dave’s hint. Continue reading “ST 2661”
52.08391-2.27358
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27006
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Well, was this a recycled Toughie or what? Hardest back-pager for some time methinks. There again, it could just be me having an off day I suppose! I found it hard to solve and it didn’t get any easier when writing the hints, which was a bit of a surprise as things usually look much more simple with hindsight. Thanks to the setter for a bit of unexpected brain strain which I did enjoy a lot, once I realised I could actually solve it without screaming for help!
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