February 12, 2023 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Sunday Toughie 55 (Hints)

Sunday Toughie No 55 by Robyn

Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee

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Robyn gets the Sunday Toughie difficulty just about right for me, grid filled in time for a good seven hours kip and the trickier parsings seemed to sort themselves out in my dreams. A biblical moaner, several middle easterners, a musical way of playing and the musical based on Puccini’s La Bohème all make an appearance.
We also have a repeat of an answer in yesterday’s prize but clued in a slightly more risque way. An equally risque definition of hell too…

14a and 14d clues today and I have hinted half.

Here we go…

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EV 1577 Hints

Enigmatic Variations 1577 (Hints)

Reality Check by Opsimath

Hints and tips by Phibs

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In the setter’s blog for Listener puzzle 4600, Opsimath wrote “This was one of the very first puzzles I attempted to set. I know, because I only stumbled on my pseudonym while looking for suitable words to use for the grid. Putting *psi* into TEA produces loads of words like campsite and lop-sided, but oΨmath caught my eye and seemed appropriate, since I was already well into my 60’s when I even started to think about setting. Plus, I was always a Math teacher. To save you rushing to Chambers, an opsimath is someone who learns late in life. I’ll admit to having been offered the very best schooling from an early age, but I only started to learn quite recently.”

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ST 3199 (Hints)

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3199 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Senf

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A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where we have continued to enjoy above seasonal normal temperatures with very little new precipitation.

For me, and I stress for me, Dada still quite friendly but with a soupçon of quirkiness today and, perhaps, an uncharacteristic error, with six anagrams (no partials), two lurkers (one reversed), and three homophones, all in an asymmetric 28 clues; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues.… Continue reading