May 2026 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 3692

Toughie No 3692 by Luxor
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***Enjoyment ***

By Friday Toughie standards this is fairly straightforward. Thanks to Luxor for the enjoyable puzzle.

Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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DT 31246

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31246

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty **** Enjoyment ***

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. I found today’s grid fill and parsing a little more challenging than those of recent Friday puzzles.  Continue reading "DT 31246"

Toughie 3691

Toughie No 3691 by Dharma
Hints and tips by ALP

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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty */** Enjoyment ****

As ever, one of the trickiest elements of blogging (apart from trying and failing to come up with musical clips that don’t enrage Jane!) is the difficulty rating. Talking of Jane, I know we all hope that no news is good news. Everything crossed. If you’re on Dharma’s wavelength (and, for some reason, I generally am) this should fly in, but, if you’re not, some of his typically wily wordplay might slow you down. I’ve gone with a safe-ish 1.5 – I hope that’s not too irritating. The floor is yours to agree … or not!

Continue reading “Toughie 3691”

DT 31245

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31245

Hints and Tips by Senf

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BD Rating – Difficulty 1.5* – Enjoyment 5*

A very good Thursday morning from Winnipeg where, while there is extreme heat and violent storms to the East of Manitoba, we are still waiting for Spring to start, this weekend perhaps, and it is supposed to be Summer in a months time!

For me, and I stress for me© (I have to say that for Terence), once again not half of a Dream Team Thursday, Silvanus was on Toughie duty yesterday, but no doubt that this is the work of a very benevolent Master of Brevity and, same as last week, there is not an error in my Difficulty rating.  The usual one word clues and answers in the Quickie, and an appearance from the Queen but no swEetheart appearing in the back pager with an average of 4.97 words per clue.  Also, like Dada, Ray T still seems to be making occasional use of a personal thesaurus.  I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!

Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!

Continue reading “DT 31245”

Toughie 3690

Toughie No 3690 by Silvanus

Hints and Tips by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty *Enjoyment ****

Silvanus set us a crossword , the majority of which was at the friendlier end of the Toughie spectrum Continue reading “Toughie 3690”

DT 31244

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31244
Hints and Tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **  Enjoyment ****

Deansleigh is on holiday (and probably without Internet access) this week so I’m standing in for him.

Thanks to today’s setter for a very enjoyable challenge which is fairly gentle. All three of the long anagrams fell quickly based on the enumerations and a few checkers so that was a big help in completing the grid.
Continue reading “DT 31244”

ST 3368 (Full Review)

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3368

A full review by Rahmat Ali

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This puzzle was published on 10th May 2026

BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ****

Greetings from Kolkata. Dada has given us an enjoyable solve this Sunday and now I present to you a full review of his puzzle. Hope to have your valuable feedback and comments. Continue reading “ST 3368 (Full Review)”