Sunday Toughie No 167 by Beam
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 6th of April 2025
Month: April 2025
ST 3311 (full review)
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 3311
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 06th April 2025
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Kolkata. A nice and witty 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 3311 (full review)”
Toughie 3461
Toughie No 3461 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
Very, very gentle from Chalicea today. No exotic fabric, no (thank goodness) periodic table – just a fun spatter of botany and Greek.… Continue reading
DT 30901
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30901
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***/****
A miserable start to the day here in Harpenden but with the consolation of some much needed rain for the golf courses.
A typical Tuesday offering from the Prof today. Nicely clued as ever & with one or two slightly tricky parses. Apologies if the review is mistake laden but am feeling the effects of late nights watching golf & early starts working.
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 30900
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30900
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa, where, as I write this on Sunday evening, we have been basking for a brief spell in some gloriously warm and sunny spring weather that Senf has so generously forwarded from Manitoba.
The clock indicates that the puzzle could not have been as difficult as my gut reaction told me. I think my gut was unduly influenced by a handful of tricky parsings that held out to the very end. The high number of anagrams and lurkers allowed speedy progress to be made early in the solve. However, despite their large number, the anagrams were so well constructed that (for me, at least) they did not detract from the puzzle.
I only identified one pun in today’s Quickie but there could well be a second that escaped me.
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 573
Sunday Toughie 168 (Hints)
Sunday Toughie No 168
by Zandio
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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I found this a proper toughie last night, but as usual a night to sleep on it and I think all has become clear. Clues of a wide range of types and I found it quite tricky to limit myself to half of 16a and 14d clues.
Some fine surfaces today and a bonus nudge may be available if you ask
Good luck to Rory McIlroy – I think he has a 5d of securing his first Green Jacket
Here we go…
EV 1690 (Hints)
Enigmatic Variations 1690 (Hints)
Nob by Vismut
Hints and tips by Phibs
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In contrast with the AI-fidelity of my fellow blogger, I decided to continue on my technologically promiscuous way by giving ChatGPT the chance to answer the question “In a themed crossword puzzle, we have to find the name, title and nickname of a person who is in some way connected with ‘nobs’. Any ideas?”
ST 3312 (Hints)
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3312 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where my ‘heavy’ winter jacket is ‘on its way’ to the back of the wardrobe – tentatively – and the ‘lighter’ spring jacket got its first ‘outing’ on Thursday, but there is still a need for the Red Scarf and it is not being consigned to the back of the sock drawer yet. However, yesterday, going out for a Dim Sum lunch, my ‘extra light’ windbreaker jacket came out as the temperature climbed towards 17 degrees, but that may not last.
For me, and I stress for me, Dada quirkily friendly again, naturally with his own thesaurus at hand – two long ‘uns, six anagrams (three partials), one lurker, and two homophones all in a slightly asymmetric 30 clues; with 15 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 – 1a, 12a, 26a, 2d, 4d, 9d, and 21d.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.