Toughie No 1217 by Elgar
For the man without whom…*
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
It has been six weeks since we had a visit from Vlad the Impaler and he makes a welcome return with a right proper Toughie. Took a while to get going – I had a couple of clues solved and then stared at the grid for longer than it took me to solve Tuesday’s ‘Toughie’!. Once I got on to Elgar’s ‘wavelength’ it slowly but surely all fell into place. Lots of clever sneakiness in the clues and so, even if I incur the wrath of the “favourites police”, I’m going to go ahead and admit that I have five favourites today.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27533
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
My apologies for the late posting, but it had totally slipped my mind that Deep Threat had advised me that he was unavailable today due to a family bereavement. I’m sure some will enjoy this somewhat pedestrian Giovanni puzzle, but I am not among them.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27528
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
This puzzle was published on Saturday, 28th June 2014
Someone asked on Saturday how we know who the setter is – well Saturdays usually follow a pattern and this should be the turn of Cephas rather than the Mysteron. I have typed the word anagram seven times not including the one in this introduction, and so for me there is no doubt whatsoever that this was a Cephas Prize Puzzle.
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Toughie No 1216 by Beam
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
This is the third week running that I’ve had to work hard! Today I made steady but rather slow progress until I ground to a complete halt with the NW corner still to do. After leaving it for a while I came back to it and managed to do 2 down which led me to 1 across and the rest then followed (but not very quickly). Because of my trials and the fact that it’s taken me a long time to write this blog make me obliged to give it 5* for difficulty. I think the definitions caused me more problems than the wordplay.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27532
Hints and tips by archy and mehitabel
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning everyone. It’s another beautiful morning on the Vega Baja and apparently it’s the same in Oxford. Cockroach and alley cat both basking in the sunshine!
This puzzle didn’t really float archy’s boat and was going to get ** enjoyment but mehitabel has prevailed so *** it is. At least we agree it wasn’t too taxing.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2748
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
This puzzle was published on Sunday, 22nd June 2014
The sun was shining, the sky was very blue and a lovely Virgilius puzzle to solve over breakfast – what more could anyone want? So many great clues, even Kath allowed ‘joint favourites’!
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Toughie No 1215 by Giovanni
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This is Toughie No. 1215 but there’s no mention of Magna Carta. Giovanni usually smuggles a few obscure words into his Toughies but today there’s only one (14a) that I’d never heard of. As always with this setter the wordplay is precise and the surfaces smooth.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27531
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Apart from 1 across, for which I needed all the checking letters, this is a fairly straightforward puzzle from our Wednesday Wizard.
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Toughie No 1214 by Warbler
Hints and tips by Toro
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment **/***
A by no means unenjoyable but really very easy Toughie from Warbler with a Wimbledon-inspired connection in the form of 1d/20d and clues based on it. Regular solvers will have rattled it off with few if any unforced errors.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27530
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Tuesdays don’t usually offer too much of a challenge and this one is no exception though I thought it was a smidgeon trickier than usual. Let us know how you got on.
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