Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27151
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
The office lurgy was continuing to take its toll when I sat down to solve this puzzle last Saturday morning and it is that I am going to blame for taking three times as long as I normally take to solve a Prize Puzzle. I have based the BD rating on other solvers’ comments on the day as I felt that would be a fairer estimation of the difficulty level than basing it on my time taken!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27145
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***
Cephas is definitely making us work harder to have a chance of winning that elusive Telegraph fountain pen. My favourite clue was 11d – what was yours?
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2685
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
The usual perfect start to Sunday morning.
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Toughie No 957 by Elgar
If I had a hammer!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
As we all know by now, having reached no 957 in the series, while some days the Toughies can be on the fluffy side, when you see Elgar’s name at the top of the page there is no doubt that it will definitely be one of the ‘most devious cryptic puzzles ever’.
Chambers defines ‘hammer’ (amongst other things) as a verb meaning ‘to contrive or think out by intellectual labour’ which certainly fits the solving process today. It is a proper hob-nailed, impaler of an Elgar, one of those cryptics where the more complicated clues blind you to the really straightforward stuff (with at least five d’oh moments), but the solving process is helped once you realise that it is a pangram.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2684
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Virgilius with his slightly trickier hat on – but oh what fun! As I work my way through a puzzle, I put dots by the clues I like, and the down clues in particular looked like they were suffering from an outbreak of measles!
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NTSPP – 164
A Puzzle by Prolixic
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27133
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Gnomey’s stuck in a dark basement again (the lives these young men lead!) and his very last minute emailed plea for help gives me the chance to review this Cephas puzzle – Cephas is definitely increasing the difficulty level these days which adds to the enjoyment factor too.
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Toughie No 951 by Petitjean
The Sound of Music…..?
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ****
…well, it is Petitjean so several musical references and some mountains too! A super crossword; for me it had about the right level of toughness for a Wednesday (3.5*), lots to smile at, and the chance to sing while you type too!! No need for hats, either slightly mad or thermal today as the sun’s finally appeared in a lovely blue sky.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27127
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment **
A typical offering from the Saturday Mysteron – nothing too contentious or for that matter exciting.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27121
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another Cephas Saturday puzzle with his usual anagrams in a mix of clues – I do believe that he is gradually upping the trickiness level too.
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