August 2022 – Page 3 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

DT 30074

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30074

Hints and tips by 2Kiwis

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

Kia ora from Aotearoa.

New Zealand has had a right drenching. A weather system that was referred to as “an atmospheric river of moist air from the north”, has given us all a thorough wetting.… Continue reading

Toughie 2909

Toughie No 2909 by Robyn

          Hints and tips by StephenL

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

Hello everyone from a cloudy South Devon. Robyn kicks off the Toughie week with a superb puzzle that wouldn’t have been out of place much later in the week. Continue reading “Toughie 2909”

DT 30073

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30073

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Tuesday. I’d like to say that I solved this engaging and enjoyable puzzle completely unaided. I really would. But I can’t, because I had to turn to reference materials to make sense of some of the final down clues. On the flip side, I have learned several exotic new words. But even more puzzling than some of those answers is how the setter managed to get a crossword containing twelve complete or partial anagrams past the editor. Unless the setter is our editor? Perhaps we will find out later.  Continue reading "DT 30073"

DT 30072

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30072

Hints and tips by pommers

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ****

Hola from the Vega Baja where we’ve had a few days when the temperature hasn’t topped 31°C, which was a welcome relief after the heatwave. However yesterday it got up to 41C° so the summer isn’t over yet!

Today we have the usual Monday fare which is mostly fairly easy but with a handful of head scratchers. There are eight clues involving anagrams so I know some of you will be pleased. As far as I can see there are only two puns in the Quickie which makes a change from my last blog when there were five!
Continue reading “DT 30072”

Sunday Toughie 30 (Hints)

Sunday Toughie No 30 by proXimal

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

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I am definitely finding proXimal the trickiest of the Sunday Toughie triumvirate, and today was a devil to parse in places, but if you closely follow the wordplay it can be done. We get a generous 30 clues today split 14a and 16d.
I have hinted a bit more than half, but as ever will be tolerant of some help from the commentariat.

I had to sleep on a couple of these as the parsings arrived long after the grid was filled and last night’s tincture of choice was wearing off.

This morning’s coffee is an Ethiopian Rocko Mountain, with tasting notes of peach, strawberry and dark chocolate. At least two cups of which were required to stimulate the brain cells this morning.

Here goes with the hints…

 

Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 30 (Hints)”