Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26654
A full review by Prolixic
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
On the basis that the Saturday setter rotates between Cephas and another setter (whose name is a closely guarded secret), this week’s prize puzzle was by Cephas. Sadly Gnomethang is not as regular as Cephas. He has been burning the midnight oil at both ends and is unable to review the crossword. I have volunteered for the happy task preparing this review. Gnomethang promises that the light at the end of the tunnel is just around the corner and he should be back on duty next week to review this coming Saturday’s crossword.
I found this to be an enjoyable crossword with a good range of clues. There was nothing to difficult to unravel in understaning the clues. The only unknown (to me) word was the plant in 5d but the word was easily found from the wordplay.
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 083
A Puzzle by Boaz
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***/****
Boaz makes a welcome return with his trademark fair but risqué cluing. It did not find this too difficult to solve and hopefully there will not be much need for the hints. It is a good job Gazza is not reviewing this as the picture opportunities would raise his blood pressure to dangerous levels.
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 082
Box by Radler
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Radler has given us a highly enjoyable crossword today that was not too tricky and contains a lot of sex and a highly desirable form of confection. I have highlighted my favourite clues in blue.
Apologies for the late posting of the review. Every time I wanted to sit down and type it up, my wife got to the computer first and found me another job to do!
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 081
A Puzzle by Chaz
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
A warm welcome back to Chaz with the next in the NTSPP series. As Big Dave said, this was at the easier end of the spectrum. It took me about the same time to solve as an easier Rufus crossword. It did help to have spotted the theme almost immediately with 1a and 29a. For those who need a hint, the theme is explained in the brackets below.
{The books are all titles in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett}.
I have highlighted my favourite clues below in blue.
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NTSPP – 078 (Review)
A crossword by Hieroglyph
Hieroglyph marks his return to the NTSPP with a crossword that will delight those who like anagrams. 14 of the clues involve full or partial anagrams – 21 if you count the separate words in the long anagram at 1a.
The preponderance of anagrams made this a very easy crossword to solve – one of the easiest to date in the NTSPP series. Being able to get the long solution from just the enumeration undoubtedly helped but a little more variety in the clues would have been welcome for this solver.
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Toughie No 610 by Notabilis
Hints and tips by Prolixic
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Tilsit is receiving treatment for his leg today so it falls to me to blog a proper Friday outing from Notabilis. This was highly enjoyable with smiles and groans on the way. Often, even where the answer was obvious, the wordplay in places displayed all of Notablis’s cunning. It took Gnomes’ law to work out 27d. If Notabilis has included one of his trademark ninas in today’s grid, I have not been able to spot it. {Many thanks to Libellule for pointing out what was staring me in the face all the time. See his comment below.]
Many thanks to Notabilis for an excellent crossword. I have highlighted my favourite clues in blue though top of tree today were 29a and 18d.
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 077
Rivals by Radler
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This week we enjoy one of Radler’s gentler puzzles. The theme is based on a well known cartoon series with 11 rivals driving across America. The themed clues are highlighted in blue and the two words leading to the cartoon series in red.
Radler received a rave review in a recent article by Anax on Crossword Unclued where he said:
“Sil van den Hoek. Boaz. Radler. Who? Who indeed. Well, these guys represent some of the most outstanding unpublished setting talent around, and we should all be enjoying what they do.”
Many thanks to Radler for another enjoyable puzzle.
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 075
A Puzzle by Boaz
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Getting to the bottom of things
It’s a warm welcome back to Boaz with a cracking puzzle (full of cracks to be sure). I have highlighted my favourite clues in blue below. We look forward to an early return to the series from our latest setter.
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Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 074
A Puzzle by Radler
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A warm welcome back to Radler with a cheeky little puzzle that will get the pulses racing! Although there is no theme as such, there is a hidden device used in the puzzle. This is that the outer perimeter of the crossword runs through the alphabet from A to Z.
I found this not as tricky as some Radler crosswords but by no means his easiest. Many thanks to him for the challenge. My favourite clue was 24d.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2594 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Prolixic
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As is unusual for the weekend prize crosswords, I (and not Big Dave) will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. Big Dave’s is not suffering the excesses of yesterday’s Sloggers and Betters Midland’s 2 meeting but is having troubles with his laptop at the moment.
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