Monthly Prize Puzzle No 5 (October 2012) by Radler
In association with Hamlyn Books,
the publishers of Telegraph Crossword Books
A review by Prolixic
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Welcome to the review of October’s Prize Puzzle set by Radler. The person whose name was drawn from the electronic hat as this month’s winner was Andy Cole. Congratulations to him. Next month’s prize puzzle will be published on Saturday 3 November.
The theme of the crossword required you to work out which letter of the alphabet was not used as the initial letter of the answers and which letter was used twice. If you got to the end of the crossword, you would have found that the letter W was not used as the initial letter of an answer but, appropriately, there was a double U in the grid with two answers beginning with this letter.
The crossword was full of the usual Radler fun and downright deviousness. Many thanks to him for the crossword. I hope that I have explained the clues correctly. If you have any queries, do let us know.
As always, thanks to our sponsors, Hamlyn Books. Do take a moment to look at some of their publications below.
Continue reading “MPP – 005 (Review)”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2662 (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.
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 141
A Puzzle by Gervase
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Continue reading “NTSPP – 141”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27002 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Crossword Club
with Tilsit in the chair
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There’s still time to enter this month’s Prize crossword – entries close at midnight.
Greetings from the Calder Valley. Everyone’s gone off to play for the day leaving yours truly to hold the baby. I rather enjoyed this puzzle over my Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes, lots of nice clues with clever definitions. The Weekly Puzzle will be up at lunchtime and if you fancy another challenge, do visit us again and have a go at it. it’s a good ‘un!
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.
Continue reading “DT 27002 (Hints)”
Toughie No 862 by Firefly
A Load of Rubbish? No! Well…. Yes!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from the Calder Valley. Firefly fills the Friday slot today with an amiable challenge, although it didn’t help me by putting the wrong answer in to 12ac as my first entry!
Nina fans will notice something along the top and bottom rows that link into the theme of 11 across, which also defines a number of answers, hence my title to today’s blog! There are a couple of clues that personally make me suck my teeth, but overall it’s a worthy Friday challenge.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27001
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
My normal routine was upset this morning because my printer decided that it was an ideal time to give up the ghost and I had to solve the puzzle on-line. I really missed having the printed sheet on which I normally count the anagrams, underline anagram fodder and mark my favourite clues. The puzzle itself was one of Giovanni’s gentler ones. Tell us what you thought.
If you want to see an answer let your cursor hover over the gap between the curly brackets under the clue.
Continue reading “DT 27001”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26996
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ***
Morning All!. I really enjoyed reviewing this puzzle. My solving time placed it in the ** category (but only just) but I found that I missed some of the pleasant neckwear along the way.
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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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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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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).
Continue reading “DT 27000”