Day: 17 April 2025

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30903
Hints and tips by Shabbo

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

I don’t know about you, but I found this quite tricky, requiring my full attention throughout.  That is not a bad thing, of course, particularly on a Thursday and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.  Perhaps the slightly unfriendly grid didn’t help, but more likely I was just being a bit slow to unravel some beautifully written clues.

Much to my granddaughter’s disgust, I had never heard of the film franchise at 2d, but the answer was gettable without this knowledge.  The England cricketer at 17d of course posed no issues to this sportsman (retired!).  For once, I will opt for the Spoonerism at 21a as my CoD – very amusing!

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, setter for a very decent challenge.

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