Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27109 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Crossword Club
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Today I hope you will all join me in congratulating Sarah Hayes – better known in Crosswordland as Arachne, the Spider Lady – on her wedding today in Manchester to her partner Nick and in wishing the happy couple all the best for the future. Watch out for a special NTSPP puzzle at noon!
Sarah & Nick
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.
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Toughie No 933 by Elkamere
The ‘Bufo’ effect strikes again
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A painful back put paid to my usual Friday morning table tennis session and so I offered to blog today’s puzzle in the expectation that it would be a typical Friday stinker. However, what Cryptic Sue has christened the ‘Bufo’ effect came into play. This effect dictates that the crossword editor will slip in a fairly gentle puzzle whenever it is my day for blogging. This puzzle took me exactly the same time as yesterday’s puzzle and was probably the easiest Elkamere puzzle that I have ever solved. The only minor hold-ups were at 4 across where I needed to work out the answer from the wordplay once I had all the checking letters and at 14 across where the wordplay eluded me for a time.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27108
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
When I first read through the clues I thought that this was going to be one of Giovanni’s more testing puzzles but once I’d established a bridgehead it all flowed fairly smoothly.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27103
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment **
I don’t think I can improve on my comment on the day “Don’t think I have seen so many chestnuts grouped together for a very long time which made solving this puzzle a very straightforward experience”.
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Toughie No 932 by Shamus
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thought this was a very straightforward puzzle. I’ve nothing else to say
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27107
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja! With my track record of spotting setters I’m keeping my big mouth shut on the subject, but I can guess who set this one!
Most of the mechanics of the puzzle are fairly straightforward but there are a couple of obscure words which had me scratching the head a little so I reckon 3* difficulty is about right. Very enjoyable even though a bit lacking in innuendo!
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2678
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Morning All!.This was something of a record solve for me on a Virgilius puzzle being approximately half the time of my usual effort. Reviewing it revealed all the usual trademarks and some very nice charades.
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Toughie No 931 by Osmosis
Hurricane? What hurricane?
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **/***
Today we have a fairly straightforward puzzle (although I appreciate that some references may have non-UK residents scratching their heads). As usual with Osmosis there are lots of clues where we have to add or subtract individual letters.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27106
Hints and tips by scchua
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A bit more challenging than the usual Wednesday. Thanks to setter, and if it’s Jay, he’s turned up the difficulty a notch or two on this one. Therefore a 3-3.5* for both difficulty and enjoyment.
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Toughie No 930 by Giovanni
Elementary said Sherlock
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A pretty good puzzle, especially for one selected as the Tuesday Toughie. The handful of words that were new to me were clued in such a way that they could be easily derived from the wordplay.
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