April 2025 – Page 2 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

ST 3314 (Hints)

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3314 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Senf

A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where Springtime temperatures are fluctuating quite considerably – 20 degrees yesterday and 9 degrees forecast for Wednesday.

For me, and I stress for me, Dada almost as friendly as Cephas was yesterday!  Three longish ‘uns, seven anagrams (four partials – three of three letters and one of four letters!!), one lurker (reversed), and two homophones all in an almost symmetric 27 clues; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues.  And, remember, my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!

Candidates for favourite – 12a, 13a, 21a, 25a, 1d, 6d, 9d, and 14d.

As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.

Continue reading “ST 3314 (Hints)”

Toughie 3468

Toughie No 3468 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

Thanks to Karla for an enjoyable puzzle. After failing to notice his Nina in the past I remembered to look this time but failed to find one. Did you do any better? I did notice that there are a number of metals in the grid but not enough, I think, to form a theme.
Continue reading “Toughie 3468”

DT 30905 (full review)

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30905

A full review by Rahmat Ali

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

This puzzle was published on 19th April 2025

BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ****

Greetings from Kolkata. A nice, straightforward Saturday puzzle from NYDK that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback.
Continue reading “DT 30905 (full review)”

DT 30909

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30909
Hints and tips by Shabbo

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

No prizes for “Guess the Setter” today – most of the hallmarks of RayT are in evidence, including sweetheart at 3d (although he is again teasing us on this one), single word solutions and brevity of clueing in the Cryptic and single word clues and solutions in the Quickie.  Don’t waste one of your hard-earned loonies on this one, Senf.

If my arithmetic is correct, Ray has used just one word too many to average five words per clue.  Surely we can find just one disposable word in this puzzle…?

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.

Many thanks to our setter and the DT Crossword Team.

Continue reading “DT 30909”

Toughie 3466

Toughie  No 3466 by Hudson

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

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

The Telegraph Puzzles site asks the question ‘can you crack our hardest crossword?… Continue reading