February 2013 – Page 3 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

DT 27105

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27105

Hints and tips by Deep Threat

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

Good morning from South Staffs where it’s bright and sunny after a frosty night.  Mrs DT tells me she is going to use a nuclear-fusion-powered airflow to dry the washing today. (She’s going to peg it on the line!)

Some quite long anagrams, and one or two slightly unusual words gave me a little pause while solving this, though when I then wrote the hints I began to wonder why I had hesitated. So **/*** for difficulty for me.

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DT 27104

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27104

Hints and tips by Libellule

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ****

Good morning from South of the Loire. A very enjoyable crossword from the Monday maestro this morning, helped significantly by bright sunshine, even though we had a frost over night.

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MPP – 009 (Review)

Monthly Prize Puzzle No 9 (February 2013) by Radler

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A review by Prolixic

Welcome to the review of February’s Prize Puzzle set by Radler.  The person whose name was drawn from the electronic hat as this month’s winner was Franco (Franky Watts).  Congratulations to him.

10 of the solutions in the crossword encoded 8 numbers from a set of 90.  Solvers had to add the numbers together go get the correct solution.  The numbers in question were identified in the grid by reference to bingo numbers.  The relevant solutions are highlighted in blue below.

Many thanks to Radler for keeping us entertained.  The next MPP will be published on Saturday 2 March.

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DT 27103 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27103 (Hints)

Big Dave’s Crossword Club

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Today is your last chance to enter our Monthly Prize puzzle competition.

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 929

Toughie No 929 by Notabilis

That was like throwing three pickled onions into a thimble!
(Sid Waddell 1940-2012 RIP)

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

When you see that Notabilis is the Toughie setter, you know you are in for a treat, and today is no exception.

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DT 27102

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27102

Hints and tips by Gazza

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

It may be that I was being particularly dozy this morning but I found this puzzle quite difficult for a back-pager (especially 26a where the answer is obvious but I can’t understand the wordplay), so I’ll be interested in what you all have to say about it.
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Toughie 928

Toughie No 928 by Dada

Hints and Tips by Bufo

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ***

Another gentle puzzle from Dada. The only hold-up came with 15 down which has an answer that I wasn’t familiar with. I managed to work it out from the wordplay.
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