Toughie No 3573 by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
S’mae a chroeso i Ddydd Mawrth! Today finds The Present Lady Whybird and I in the North Wales village of Dolgarrog to celebrate a couple of anniversaries, notably our Wooden anniversary. As well as being the site of the world’s first man-made surf lagoon (sadly not currently operational) Dolgarrog has a poignant memorial garden commemorating the worst dam disaster in Wales, which includes some of the massive boulders washed down the hillside by the torrent almost hundred years ago to the day. On a less sombre note, the autumn colours in Bodnant garden are spectacular, although the hawfinches in Caerhun churchyard are as elusive as ever…
Chalicea has given us a very enjoyable, and (with one exception) not too tricky puzzle to start the Toughie week, so many thanks to her. Parsing 20a, and then having to use one of my lifelines to confirm my suspicions, has necessitated the extra half-star for difficulty. My favourites today are 22a and 15a, with the latter being my overall winner, even as a non-golfer.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31069
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ***/****.
A lovely bright & sunny autumnal day here in Harpenden. No golf unfortunately as my back is playing up once more & I’ve the flu & possibly Covid jab to look forward to this afternoon.
I thought today’s Anthony Plumb puzzle perhaps a tad trickier than of late but maybe that was just me. As ever there are an assortment of tunes to accompany the (hopefully correct for a change) hints.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED & the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons. Please leave a comment below telling us what you thought & how you got on with the puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31068
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa, where we are still on summer time but the weather is anything but summery. As Senf mentioned yesterday, North America won’t switch back to standard time until next weekend meaning for the next week the time differential between Ottawa and the UK shrinks to four hours from the usual five hours and plays havoc with my sleep routine when I am on blogging duty. We are also disadvantaged in the spring – and for a longer period of time – as North America goes on summer time three weeks prior to the UK
I might venture out on a limb and attribute this puzzle to X-Type (with the usual caveat regarding my dismal setter identification record). I don’t believe many will find it too difficult but it does demonstrate that such puzzles can also be enjoyable. I struggled more with the so-called Quickie.
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.
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A Puzzle by Munkleton
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Continue reading “Rookie Corner 601”
Sunday Toughie No 196
by proXimal
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Whilst enjoying the Sloggers and Betters event in York, I was aware I still had a blog to prepare for this excellent offering from proXimal. Once the Spoonerism dropped, the rest flowed fairly easily despite the curry we rounded off the evening with, repeating on me.
We have 14a and 14d clues today, and I have hinted at half. I am sure a few tricky ones have hit the cutting room floor. I will try and give a bonus nudge or two if required, but I hope you get the checkers to complete this fine puzzle.
Here we go, Folks…
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Enigmatic Variations 1718 (Hints)
Wanted by Kruger
Hints and tips by Phibs
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Since I couldn’t see anything in the preamble that would give ChatGPT a fighting chance of identifying the theme, I asked instead, “Why might a crossword setter choose the pseudonym Kruger?” I was pleased to learn that this was “a fun and subtle question — and in crosswords, setters often choose pseudonyms that have wordplay, personal resonance, or a hint of mischief built in.”
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3340 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where, with the end of BST, we now start a ‘hiatus’ week of puzzles being available an hour later until we ‘Fall Back’ next weekend.
For me, and I stress for me,© quite challenging, especially in the NE, although I probably made it more difficult than it should have been. 5 anagrams (0 partials), 1 lurker, and 1 homophone in a symmetric 28 clues; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should/might be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues.
If it is some time since you read, or if you have never read the instructions in RED below the hints then please consider doing so before commenting today as my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
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A Puzzle by Buddy
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Continue reading "NTSPP 820"
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31067 (Hints)
The Saturday Crossword Club (hosted by crypticsue)
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Special Puzzle – 014
Untitled by Elgar
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Continue reading “SP – 014”