Month: March 2025
Toughie 3438
Toughie No 3438 by Weatherman
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
DT 30866
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30866
Hints and tips by Senf
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *****
A very good Wednesday morning from Winnipeg where we continue to get ‘small’ reminders that Astronomical Winter is not over yet.… Continue reading
Sunday Toughie 161 (Review)
Sunday Toughie No 161 by Light
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 23rd of February 2025
I still haven’t worked out who Light is but never mind I enjoyed this puzzle…
ST 3305 (full review)
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3305
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 23rd February 2025
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A straightforward and gentle puzzle from Dada this Sunday that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a full review of his puzzle for your kind perusal and valuable feedback.
Continue reading “ST 3305 (full review)”
Toughie 3437
Toughie No 3437 by Donnybrook
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
I think most of us would clock this as a Donnybrook number – even without the byline – at a hundred paces.… Continue reading
DT 30865
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30865
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ***
After a decidedly chilly start it’s looking like another lovely spring day here in Harpenden – if this keeps up there’ll be half a chance of my sodden golf course finally drying out & the trolley ban being lifted.
Another typically gentle Tuesday puzzle which I assume is from our regular setter (Senf will advise re the grid). It took me a tad longer to complete than yesterday but was all over pretty quickly so I don’t expect it will cause problems for too many. Enjoyable, concisely clued & I particularly liked the way the surface reads at 14&16a and later at 27&28d seemed related. As ever there’s an assortment of tunes to accompany the hopefully correct hints.
In the following hints, definitions are underlined, indicators are mostly in parentheses, and answers are revealed by clicking where shown as usual. Please leave a comment below on how you got on with the puzzle.
DT 30864
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30864
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa, where a brief spell of temperatures hovering around the freezing point has been superseded by temperatures in the negative mid-teens (Celsius).
Until proven wrong, I will attribute this very enjoyable puzzle to Robyn. After the appearance of a second pun at the end the Quickie two weeks ago, I was on the lookout today for evidence of a revival of this Campbell practice. I thought for a moment there might be one present today, but discarded the notion when I realized that one of the words from the grid would simply be used ‘as is’ in the resulting pun. So, although there is sort of a partial pun, I don’t consider it to be a true pun.
Look closely and you may find a clue somewhere in the blog revealing what I will be doing today.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Rookie Corner 568
Sunday Toughie 162 (Hints)
Sunday Toughie No 162
by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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I am still none the wiser as to who Light is from last week, but as usual the trademark™ proXimalisms “signed” this crossword better than any byline. We start with a nice Spoonerism in the acrosses and an equally fine compound anagram in the downs.
I have curtailed my hints at half of 14a and 14d clues, but as always, some tricky clues remain unhinted. I will try and give a bonus nudge or two if you ask.
Here we go, Folks…