Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31148
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** Enjoyment ****
Good morning from Hampshire, where the sun is shining again after yesterday’s deluge. I found today’s puzzle to be quite a challenge, and it took me a while to get going, but in the end it was well worth the effort. I especially liked 4d, and the Beatle-themed 27a and 5d, but the pick of today’s clues for me is the magnificent 19a. Many thanks to today’s setter. Continue reading “DT 31148”
Sunday Toughie No 208 by Beam
Review by Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 18th of January 2026
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3352
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 18th January 2026
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 3352 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3625 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from a grey, wet, windy Wirral. It is only two weeks since we had a Tuesday Hudson, so I was pleasantly surprised to see his name appear when I opened my slightly damp Dead Tree this morning. However, we have a very different beast today compared with the previous one – still a lot of fun, but a puzzle that I felt would not have been out of place later in the week (not that I am complaining). There are a couple of gimmes to get the ball rolling, but then it is into full-on Toughie territory, with a smattering of GK that needed to be checked. The clues are all fair and clear, even if some of the parsing took a bit of effort (I’m looking at you, 1d and 12a…) and are combined with Hudson’s smooth, narrative (often deceptively so) surfaces. With Honourable Mentions for the Italian hothead, and 17d and 20d, my podium places go to the 14a/18a double act, with 11a on the top step by a nose.
Thank you, Hudson, for a comprehensive, but tasty, stiffener to start the week!
Please let us know how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
Continue reading “Toughie 3625”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31147
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment **/***
I confess to feeling a little grouchy today after an indifferent night’s sleep then waking up to this depressingly miserable weather. This may well have something to do with my failure to drum up a great deal of enthusiasm for today’s puzzle. I’ll be interested to see what others think & I hope I’m missing something but it seemed to lack some of the usual sparkle & certainly none of last week’s risqué content.
I see Hudson is on duty over in t’other place so that is bound to be a puzzle worth checking out.
As usual there are an assortment of clips to enjoy or ignore.
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 31146
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ★★ – Enjoyment ★★★★
Welcome to today’s Telegraph cryptic crossword, which I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. I had planned an intro and a book review, as usual, but the time I’d set aside yesterday evening for typing them I instead spent solving Chris Lancaster’s poignant Toughie — for which I make no apology. If, like me, you aren’t really a Toughie-level solver, I still recommend giving this one a go; with lots of help from Sloop John Bee’s hints (and a little assistance from some letter-matching software), it is possible to get there.
I hope everybody has fun at this website’s Birthday Bash next weekend. Sorry I can’t be with you this year; I shall miss seeing you all. And if you haven’t heard of this, everybody reading this is welcome — click the link in the previous sentence for details.
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A Puzzle by Osmanthus
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Continue reading “Rookie Corner 614”
Sunday Toughie No 209
by Samuel
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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I was very pleasantly surprised to find Samuel here today, but my happiness waned when the theme of today’s puzzle became apparent. A valedictory performance indeed. 7a 16a 26a 6d 7d and 12d brought a 4d to my eye. I don’t think we can expect more from Samuel, who has given us so much already.
Lots of double definitions and anagrams, but I can’t hint at them all. I think the valedictory nature of today’s puzzle will allow me to forego the red pencil. 23d up Samuel, you’ve given us a belter today.
Here We Go…
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 209 (Hints)”
Enigmatic Variations 1731 (Hints)
Columns by Chalicea
Hints and tips by Gabriel / Jpeg
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It is always good to start a new year off with a puzzle from Chalicea, whose puzzles are usually not too difficult and always fun.… Continue reading
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3353 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
A very good Sunday morning, on my semisesquicentennial plus one, from the former Pack Horse Hotel in the former Staines, Middlesex – I have given up on all the name changes that have been made to protect the innocent. When I left Winnipeg, for an unexpected expedition of a journey* on Thursday afternoon, the temperature was minus 31 degrees, feels like minus 45! But the long range forecast does have it ‘warming up’ to minus 4 degrees for when I get back in ten days.
* For the curious – a ‘normal’ journey by air from Winnipeg to Heathrow involves two aircraft; on this occasion five aircraft were involved and two of them didn’t even leave the ground resulting in arrival at Heathrow 17 hours later then planned. The joys of air travel!
For me, and I stress for me,© Dada reasonably friendly with the return of an ‘old favourite(?)’ that some of us love to hate, two long ‘uns and two almost long ‘uns, eight anagrams (three partials), one lurker (reversed), and no homophones in a symmetric 28 clues; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should/might be able to get some of the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!
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, or it would be if I was not ecclesiastically socialising with my Big Sister, and the Naughty Step is OPEN! I imagine that crypticsue and Gazza could be standing by with their electronic blue pencils in hand.
Continue reading “ST 3353 (Hints)”