Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30858
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Happy Monday, everybody. This weekend we went to a Miffy exhibition in Leeds, to celebrate the cartoon rabbit’s 70th birthday. I was particularly interested to learn how Dick Bruna coloured the illustrations by cutting out coloured sheets of paper (by hand) and layering them behind the black outlines transferred onto clear film. And that the wobbliness in the black lines was achieved by painting them originally onto bumpy watercolour paper.
There’s also some impressively layered clues in today’s today’s Telegraph Crossword, which is giving off the aura of having been dreamt up by Twmbarlwm. Lots of fantastic clues, with plenty of twists along the way.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30846
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hello to everybody who’s had a go at today’s Telegraph Crossword. If you’re stuck on a clue or puzzled by an answer, the hints and explanations below should help. And remember, don’t apologise or feel bad for looking at a hint: that’s what they are for! If it weren’t for Big Dave setting up this site and bloggers providing hints, I wouldn’t be able to solve cryptic crosswords now. Those dabbling in cryptic puzzles, and those completely baffled, are just as welcome to join in with the comments as the experienced solvers who haven’t required a Monday hint in years. It’s always lovely to receive comments. Please see the etiquette guide to avoid any faux pas.
The definition part of each clue is underlined. The (except this one) blobs are hiding the answers, so despite what they are instructing you to do, feel free to only actually click on them if you wish to see an answer.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30834
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hello, from a train hurtling up the East Coast Main Line, carrying a precious cargo of macarons back to Yorkshire from this blog’s Birthday Bash in London at the weekend. At the time this is published I should be somewhere between Peterborough and Grantham, if the service is keeping to schedule. And if the train wi-fi is working, I might even have had time to add some pictures or music to the hints below.
Thank you so much to Sloop John Bee and Elgar for arranging the Bash. It was so lovely to meet people in person. We must do it again sometime.
On to today’s crossword: hints and explanations are below, with the definition parts of clues underlined. Do ask if anything still isn’t clear, and let us know how you found the puzzle and which clues you particularly liked. Comments from lurkers would be as welcome as they are oxymoronic. Check the etiquette guide for house rules.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30816
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where the weather has been pretty much as expected, and the locals have been out creating entries for the animal snow sculpture competition.
Hang on, that doesn’t seem right …
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30810
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A belated Merry Christmas to everybody who reads this blog, whether every day or just popping in from time to time. I ought to have been the first blogger to offer Christmas greetings, but on December 16th I failed to remember that it was my final hinting before Christmas, so you’re getting it late instead.
It’s a Monday — whether it feels like it or not — so here are hints and explanations for today’s Telegraph Crossword, with definitions underlined. Do comment below with how you found the puzzle, any questions about it, and which clues you like best.
One of our regular between-Christmas-and-New-Year treats is a visit to Saltaire to see their Living Advent Calendar — real windows which have been decorated, a new one being unveiled each day in the run up to Christmas. Worth seeing if you’re anywhere nearby, and especially recommended to fans of cats, which seem to feature in many of the windows. Here are some of our favourites:
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30798
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hello, fellow commoners. If the Telegraph crossword is common, then I certainly have no wish to be anything else. How ridiculous anyway, suggesting that you should decide what to put on your pudding not based not on what you’ll enjoy eating most but on how posh or common some others will judge your choice! But at least the article used the term ‘U’, not often encountered these days outside of crosswords, thereby justifying setters’ continued use of ‘posh’ to indicate that letter.
The Daily Telegraph crossword on Mondays is one of the best places to learn how to solve cryptic crosswords. If over the Christmas period you encounter any students who show any inclination towards crosswords, do let them know they can have a free subscription, including Telegraph Puzzles — and of course make sure they know about Big Dave’s Crossword Blog for help with working out what’s going on.
Today’s puzzle is a treat for those who like putting one thing inside another. Do leave a comment saying how you got on with it.
Here in Ilkley this weekend we had the Rudolph’s Run parade of decorated tractors passing through — illuminated farm vehicles as far as the eye could see. (Our household’s resident statistician counted 213 of them go past.)
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30786
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello to everybody attempting today’s Telegraph cryptic crossword. If you get stuck, or you have an answer but you aren’t sure why it’s the answer, then the hints below should help. (If they don’t, then that’s my fault; do leave a comment saying what’s unclear, and somebody from the friendly community here will explain whatever it is I didn’t.)
Usually Monday is the only day of the week in which I both work from home and don’t walk the 10-year-old to school, which is handy for fitting in pre-work solving and bloggling. But today I need to head into the office, so apologies for the lack of pictures below. (Alternatively, if I did find time to add some pictures, apologies for leaving in the previous sentence, which I failed to remove. I’m writing this introduction on Sunday, before I’ve even seen the puzzle.)
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30774
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello. It’s Monday and today’s crossword doesn’t contain any obscure vocabulary, so hopefully it should be suitable for beginners. If you’re one, then thank you for joining us — nice to have you here. The hints and explanations below are there to be used, with definitions underlined. Press on a clue’s brrr, it’s cold today! blob to reveal its answer.
Thank you for the welcome messages last week; I didn’t want to clutter up the comments by replying to each one separately, but they were all appreciated. And thank you to Big Dave’s resident technical expert Mr K for providing assistance in various matters, including how to add pictures.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30762
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Monday’s cryptic crosswords are often more beginner-friendly than those later in the week. If you’re stuck on a clue, or have the answer but don’t know why, the hints below are intended to help, with the definition part of each underlined. Press on the like that! to see the answer.
Do leave a comment below saying how you found today’s puzzle. Comments are especially welcome from those new here or who haven’t commented before. See the etiquette guide if you’re unsure.
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