January 2026 – Page 5 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Month: January 2026

Toughie 3620

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3620 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza

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

Sparks has provided today’s enjoyable Toughie. Thanks to him.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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DT 31138

by crypticsue  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31138
Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty  ***  Enjoyment ***

Mr K is traveling at the moment and unable to blog so at very short notice I’ve set up the clues and answers and underlined the definitions. I’ve no time to write the hints so feel free to contribute hints for individual clues – I’ll incorporate good ones in the blog later.

Update:  As Gazza is also blogging the Toughie, I have stepped in to provide some hurried hints for the backpager.   I’m sure I’ve made lots of mistakes but if you point them out, please tell us what you thought of the crossword at the same time.

Difficult to tell at the speed at which I was solving, parsing and typing, but it did seem to be that there were a lot of repeated clue devices throughout

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DT 31133 (Full Review)

by Rahmat Ali  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31133

A full review by Rahmat Ali

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This puzzle was published on 10th January 2026

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

Greetings from Kolkata. A challenging yet entertaining Saturday puzzle from Twmbarlwm that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback. Continue reading “DT 31133 (Full Review)”

Toughie 3619

by ALP  

Toughie No 3619 by Kcit
Hints and tips by ALP

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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Parsing 28a ***** – Enjoyment ***

Fairly straightforward Lego from Kcit today, bar one spot of parsing (28a). I had to dredge up some A-level vocab for 1a and 6d’s “amount of work” but the definitions largely jumped out. All told, a pretty brisk solve. Pondering over the mechanics of 28a easily took as long (for me, anyroad) as the entire puzzle! All yours.

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DT 31137

by Senf  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31137

Hints and Tips by Senf

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

A very good Thursday morning from Winnipeg.  No doubt that the Master of Brevity is today’s setter, but not the first leg of a Dream Team Thursday, Kcit is on Toughie duty, just a sprinkling of the usual indicators between this puzzle and the Quickie are in evidence.  I haven’t calculated average words per clue – I am assuming it is 5 ± a decimal point or two.

For me, etc© (I have to say that for Terence), an enjoyable puzzle which caused several pauses for thought for solving and parsing.  I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!

Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!

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DT 31136

by Deansleigh  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31136
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh

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BD Rating – Difficulty *  Enjoyment ***

Good morning from Hampshire, where the winter sun has made a welcome appearance after yesterday’s relentless rain.  I found this puzzle to be fairly gentle for a midweek back-pager, and it was my quickest solve of the week so far.  7d and 13d both made it onto my podium today, but my favourite has to be the superb 12a.  Many thanks to today’s setter.

In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED and indicator words (e.g. anagram indicators) are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons.

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