January 2025 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 3420

Toughie No 3420 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza

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

Sparks has provided an entertaining puzzle where some of the parsing took me some time – many thanks to him. He usually has something going on in the grid and today all of the 4-letter answers are reversed in symmetrical locations.
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DT 30838

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30838

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty **** Enjoyment ***

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. I had to ponder the parsing of several clues in this puzzle, which bumped up my difficulty rating.  Continue reading "DT 30838"

DT 30833 (full review)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30833

A full review by Rahmat Ali

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This puzzle was published on 25th January 2025

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

Greetings from Kolkata. A straightforward and very entertaining Saturday puzzle from NYDK that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback.
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DT 30837

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30837
Hints and tips by Shabbo

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

RayT in relatively benign form today, I thought, but enjoyable as ever.  He has averaged bang on five words/clue in today’s puzzle – quite remarkable.

I wrestled with the definition element of 21a for a while and needed the current Mrs Shabbo’s help with the house plant at 28a.  My joint podium clues were the steamy photo at 15a and the snooker rest at 27a.

In the blog below, the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED and the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the “Click Here” buttons.  Please leave a comment telling us how you got on and what you thought of the puzzle.  Please also try to be positive – it’s only a bit of fun.

Thank you, Ray.

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Toughie 3418

Toughie  No 3418 by Weatherman

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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

A nice Wednesday Toughie with a few clues where the solution was obvious but the ‘why?’ took a little longer to work out

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DT 30836

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30836

Hints and tips by Senf

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

A very good Wednesday morning from a still soggy Wincanton in flooded in places Somerset post Storm Herminia; I am hoping that my return trip to Surrey today is relatively trouble free and I will not need water wings!

For me, etc (I have to say that for Terence), another entertaining and reasonably straightforward Wednesday puzzle

At a recent event in W2, a little bird suggested to me that the Wednesday setter might be Hudson or Karla, possibly alternating.  Is one of them today’s setter?  As my ancestors would say – je ne sais pas.  What do you think?

Candidates for favourite – 14a, 23a, 2d, 7d, and 16d.

In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the Click here! buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.

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