July 2022 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Sunday Toughie 27 (Hints)

Sunday Toughie No 27 by Robyn

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

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The crossword wasn’t too difficult by Sunday Toughie standards, As I was awaiting the midnight publication of today’s toughie I fell asleep with a wee 8d at hand. I awoke with a start and made a meal of dealing with network and printer problems into the small hours. Thankfully when I was able to access the puzzle it wasn’t too difficult, either that or my crossword skills have come on leaps and bounds over the last 27 weeks.

I may have detected a slight theme as I have quite a few answers with a Sci-Fi / Space theme but I may have been led astray by the Twitter meme that today is the actual birthdate of George Jetson.

THE JETSONS, Jane, Judy, Astro, Elroy & George Jetson, 1962-87

 

Anyway here we go with an evenly split 14a/14d clues, exactly half of which I have hinted.
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EV 1550 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1550 (Hints)

Elementary Solutions by A FEW

Hints and tips by Phibs

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The culmination of a month of puzzles that put the ‘eco’ into recondite decoding features a preamble and four preamblets, and is surely the work of a consortium.
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ST 3171 (Hints)

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3171 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Senf

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A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where we are enjoying a three day holiday weekend, quite what the reason is I am not absolutely certain but I’ll take it anyway.

For me, Dada providing a bit of a head scratcher especially with two in the NE and one in the SW, with five anagrams (one partial), one lurker (reversed), and two homophones – all in a symmetric 26 clues; with 13 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues.… Continue reading

DT 30053 (Hints)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30053 Hints)

The Saturday Crossword Club (hosted by crypticsue)

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Tilsit is away in Germany and so I’m providing a few hints for what, given that it is a pangram, with lots of anagrams, must be the work of Cephas
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Toughie 2896

Toughie No 2896 by Elgar

Hints and tips by Dutch

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

Wow. I know Elgar won’t use this grid lightly. Quite the wonderful and oh-so-satisfying penny drop when you finally figure out what is going on. A great construction, thank you Elgar!!… Continue reading

DT 30052

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30052

Hints and tips by Deep Threat

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Good morning from South Staffs on another dry day, the sun peering through some high cloud.

A slightly odd feel to today’s puzzle for me, but comfortably solved on the border of *** time.… Continue reading

DT 30047 (full review)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30047

A full review by Rahmat Ali

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This puzzle was published on 23rd July 2022

BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ****

Greetings from Kolkata. A delightful Saturday puzzle from Chalicea that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and important feedback.Continue reading

Toughie 2895

Toughie No 2895 by Beam

Hints and tips by Gazza

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

This was definitely at the easier end of Beam’s range and, apart from the absence of anagrams, could well have appeared as a Ray T production. So I hope those many Ray T aficionados who steer clear of Toughies will give this one a go – I think that they’ll enjoy it.Continue reading

DT 30051

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30051

Hints and tips by Miffypops

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Rating as suggested by NAS – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

Good day. Solvers wasting the worlds resources of graphite and ink will waste less today with only a measly twenty-six clues to solve. Rather easy for a Thursday methinks. A Mrs Trellis of North Wales commented on my last blog, Continue reading “DT 30051”