December 4, 2018 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 2136

Toughie No 2136 by Musaeus

Hints and tips by Kitty

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

 

Hi everyone.  I hope life is treating you well.  The new week of Toughies kicks off with a Musaeus puzzle, his fourth in this series.  For the most part, things went along in a manner typical of a puzzle at the gentler end of (although on) the Toughie spectrum, but I had a real tussle with a few.  After dithering over the ratings, I split the difference.  Similarly for enjoyment: I found this inventive and a bit different and was really enjoying it, but while staring at the last answers with unhelpful checking letters, my inner grump may have voiced a few things which I won’t publish here!  I’ll concede enough to Miss Grumpitty to mention that four five-letter answers had only two checked letters, and those were all vowels.

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DT 28913

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28913

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

 

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Tuesday.  While solving it I thought that this puzzle was trickier than the Tuesday norm, but after writing the hints I couldn't see why.  Funny how that seems to happen.  How was it for you?

The countdown box over there on the right of the page shows that the 10th anniversary of this blog is rapidly approaching.  Everyone is invited to celebrate this event at the traditional Birthday Bash gathering at The Bridge House on January 26th, 2019.  I'm opening up a comment box survey to collect responses from all readers who would like to send along some words about what the site has given them, express their thanks and well wishes to BD, etc., etc..  We'll share hard copies of the contributions at the Bash and publish them on the site afterwards.  Click here to open the comment box and leave your thoughts.   

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