Gazza – Page 157 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

DT Cryptic No 25880

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25880

Today’s hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

Nothing too taxing or obscure and a few nicely-worded clues – what more could you want for a Thursday?

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Toughie No 113

Toughie No 113 by Busman

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

As Toughies go this one is pretty easy (it’s an ideal one to start on if you’re dipping your toe in such waters for the first time; just don’t expect them all to be as easy as this!). That said, there are a few cleverly-worded and enjoyable clues amongst the easy ones, and a distinct lack of very obscure words, which is a major benefit in my opinion.

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DT Cryptic No 25878

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25878

Today’s hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

This one is a fairly typical Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword – workmanlike with nothing too complicated. As usual, the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space inside if you’re totally stumped.

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DT Cryptic No 25874

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25874

Today’s hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

A good, honest puzzle with some clever clues. As usual, if you cannot get the answer even with the hint, select the white space inside the curly brackets to reveal it.

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Toughie No 109

Toughie No 109 by Warbler

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

This one is not as difficult as yesterday’s. I was held up on 19d because I initially read the last word of the clue as TURN rather than TUM. It’s an easy mistake to make with lower-case letters, but I’ll have to get new glasses!

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DT Cryptic No 25872

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25872

Today’s hints and tips by Gazza

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

An interesting and varied collection of clues, slightly more difficult than yesterday’s but worth the effort to tease out. As usual, the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space inside if you’re totally stumped.

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DT Cryptic No 25868

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25868

Today’s hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

I was sailing through this one at a rate of knots until I hit 24a, where the wordplay held me up for ages until the penny finally dropped, swiftly followed by a bout of self-kicking! As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space inside the brackets to display the answer, but do try to get it from the hints first.

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Toughie No 105

Toughie No 105 by Giovanni

Hints and tips by Gazza

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

This is my first attempt at doing a write-up for a Toughie and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s got some challenging clues, as well as some easy ones, and doesn’t have too many obscure words.

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DT Cryptic No 25866

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25866

Today’s hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

There’s nothing too difficult in today’s Cryptic crossword and the clues range from pretty neat to not so good. I’ve followed Big Dave’s convention in providing the answers hidden inside curly brackets (thanks to him for telling me how to achieve this effect). If you can’t work out the answer from my hint you can reveal it by highlighting the white space inside the curly brackets.

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DT Cryptic No 25862

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25862

Today’s hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

It’s Thursday today, so Gazza’s back again.  Don’t forget that the full analyses for last weekend’s puzzles are due to be published at noon.  You may have already seen the Saturday review as it was released last Friday after being published online by mistake; some small revisions have been applied, mostly to give all the answers as well as the wordplay.   BD

I thought that this was an entertaining crossword with some interesting clues and not too difficult, though it does contain one word I’d never heard of.

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