Toughie No 2377 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *
Dutch is away this week but should be back next Friday.
There are various ways of setting a Toughie – Elgar-like fiendishness, the use of obscure words à la Giovanni and the sheer elegance of Notabilis, to name but three. Then there is a mix of Lego-type meaningless clues which is what we have today. For most of the clues the surface reading is pure gobbledegook, which leads to a difficult-to-solve puzzle that lacks any sense of satisfaction. Continue reading “Toughie 2377”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29274
Hints and tips by Deep Threat
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from South Staffs.
I didn’t recognise the style of today’s puzzle, so this may be a new setter.… Continue reading
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29269
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 25th January 2020
BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***
I always take a smidgen longer to solve the crossword when on the train, often because there is, as was the case on Saturday morning, a fellow passenger who thought everyone in the carriage needed to hear their views on something. … Continue reading
Toughie No 2376 by Stick Insect
Hints and tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A lot of the difficulty in this crossword comes from having to take quite a time to work out the parsing of several of the clues, which is reflected in the difficulty rating.… Continue reading
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29273
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where we’re having an unseasonably warm spell of weather. It got up to 21°C yesterday and it’s forecast for 23°C over the weekend. Not usually this warm in January so I guess we’ll have to pay for it next month.
I may be wrong but I get the feeling that we might have a new setter today as the style of this puzzle didn’t ring any bells with me at all. Maybe I just wasn’t on the wavelength but I found it a tricky little rascal. There’s a few gimmes and a few anagrams to get a start but then there’s other clues made of sterner stuff. It will be interesting to hear your take on it. Continue reading “DT 29273”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3039
A full review by crypticsue
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This puzzle was published on 19th January 2020
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
A nice Sunday crossword which flowed easily from start to finish
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.… Continue reading
Toughie No 2375 by Giovanni
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that this was more akin to the back-pagers that Giovanni used to give us on Fridays than his usual Toughies.… Continue reading
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29272
Hints and tips by 2Kiwis
BD Rating – Difficulty **– Enjoyment ****
Kia ora from Aotearoa.
Our property has been much livelier than usual for the last few days. Our two eldest grandsons are both about to leave home and start university in Christchurch.… Continue reading
Toughie No 2374 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Another super puzzle from Chalicea. The answers to one or two clues needed to be teased out, but most were straightforward. Continue reading “Toughie 2374”