Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31311
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** Enjoyment ****
This is the trickiest puzzle of the week so far which is just right for a Thursday and I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to today’s setter.
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Toughie No 3733 by Beam
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Whybird is off on his holidays so I’m standing in today.
Beam is obviously the flavour of the month at Telegraph Towers – this is his second Toughie in three days. All his trademarks are present today in a gentle and enjoyable puzzle.
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Toughie No 3732 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
A typical Osmosis puzzle with tricky wordplay and well-disguised definitions throughout. Many thanks to him.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31299
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** Enjoyment *****
This is a proper end-of-week puzzle with a reasonable amount of GK and a number of cleverly misleading definitions. I loved it.
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Toughie No 3724 by Dharma
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Enjoyable but very gentle for a Friday Toughie – thanks to Dharma. Having a single 3-letter anagram did seem slightly odd and I wondered whether there had been a last-minute change to what had been intended to be an anagram-free puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31287
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Thanks to today’s setter for a very enjoyable puzzle though I’m not sure that we needed to be reminded of the former political leaders from opposing parties.
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Toughie No 3716 by Luxor
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Luxor has upped his difficulty level a bit since his last Toughie and has given us an enjoyable challenge – thanks to him. I thought at one stage that we were heading for a pangram but it was not to be.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31275
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Thanks to today’s setter for a very enjoyable puzzle. I wonder whether your guess as to their identity will correspond with mine.
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Toughie No 3708 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
There are a couple of unusual words here and some synonyms requiring a bit of thought but all were very fairly clued. Thanks to Sparks for the pangram.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31263
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Thanks to today’s setter for an enjoyable puzzle which provides a step up in difficulty from the earlier ones this week.
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