Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29677
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where the weather has been a bit crazy. Unseasonably hot and yesterday the temperature rose to 36°C. Ridiculous for mid-May. Fortunately today’s forecast is for a more usual 24°C. On the Covid front both pommette and I have had our first jabs of the Pfizer stuff and are due our second dose soon, me next week and pommette the week after. The state of alarm in Spain ended last weekend so a lot of the restrictions have been lifted and we’ve been able to visit our apartment in Murcia. I just hope it isn’t too much too soon. The week before last there were zero Covid related admissions to the Vega Baja hospital and Communitat Valenciana has the lowest infection rate is Spain. It would be a shame to ruin all that progress by being too precipitate.
As to the crossword, well what can I say. It was the usual Monday elegance but I did something I’ve not managed to do for quite some time – I simply solved every clue in order, starting at 1a and ending at 22d. Having done that how can I give more than one star for difficulty?
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29665
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja on a very pleasant spring morning. Sunny, light breeze and forecast for 23°C this afternoon. What more could one ask for?
The puzzle’s a pretty normal Monday affair with quite a few gimmes to get you a start and then a few with much more complicated wordplay to get you exercising the grey matter. Overall I enjoyed it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29653
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where our lockdown continues. It’s not too bad really as bars are open until 1800 and shops can open up to 2000 so it doesn’t really affect pommette and I as we rarely go out in the evening. I’m more for a good lunch followed by a siesta and then a veg-out in front of the telly. The main problem for us is that the borders of Communitat Valenciana remain closed so we haven’t been able to visit our apartment since last October as it’s in the neighbouring community of Murcia. Still, the measures have had some good effect and Valenciana has the lowest infection rate in Spain, some say the lowest rate in Europe.
Not much to say about the puzzle that I haven’t before. It’s another example of what has become our normal Monday fare. However, there’s a couple of clues with slightly complicated wordplay and more than the average number of clues involving anagrams. I thought it more enjoyable than usual so it’ll be interesting to see if any of you agree.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29641
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where I know that Spring has sprung because the swallows are back form their travels. Unfortunately the weather forecasters don’t agree and say it’s going to go cold and wet for a few days from Wednesday before normal service is resumed next week. Oh well, they aren’t always right.
Today we have a pretty normal Monday puzzle. I thought it was going to be a bit tricky when I only got six of the acrosses on first pass but then the downs came to the rescue in a big way, yielding ten out of the fourteen clues. The missing answers just filled themselves in after that leaving me wondering why I missed them the first time. Just being a bit slow I guess.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29629
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja on a bright sunny morning. It’s been a bit cold and wet here recently but yesterday normal service was resumed. Perhaps spring is about to sprung.
Today’s crossword is pretty standard Monday fare, not too difficult and quite enjoyable. Going through the acrosses I spotted the J in 1a and the Z in 21a so I thought we might be in for a pangram but it’s not, it’s missing F, K and X.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29617
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja on a bright sunny morning, which makes a nice change after all the rain we’ve had over the last 48 hours. Last week the covid restrictions were eased a tad and bars were allowed to open their outside seating areas but I don’t think there was much trade done over the weekend.
I know I’ve said this before but today’s puzzle is another example of what has become standard fare on Mondays. Elegant clues and not too much difficulty, although there’s a couple of bits of GK required in this one. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29605
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where the Covid restrictions continue. Bars and restaurants remain closed and we can’t travel outside the Communitat Valenciana. It’s likely to stay this way until March 1st or later. At least infection rates are coming down and the vaccination programme has started so there’s light at the end of the tunnel – I just hope it isn’t the headlight of an oncoming train!
Maybe it’s just me having an off day but I found today’s puzzle a fair bit trickier than the last few Monday puzzles have been. It was also very entertaining as some of the pennies dropped so all in all one of the better Monday offerings for some time. I’ll be interested to find out if you guys agree.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29593
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where everywhere is covered in a fine film of red dust blown over from the Sahara desert. Usually we get it with rain (dirty rain) but this time it blew over as a dust storm last Friday night.
Before I get to the crossword may I first of all offer my apologies if this blog turns out to be a bit sub-standard. It’s now 0230CET and I’m sat in our kitchen watching Superbowl LV and trying to solve the crossword and write the hints between the plays. Not easy believe me.
The crossword hasn’t put up much resistance so I’ve gone for ** difficulty but I’ve left the enjoyment at a neutral *** as I wasn’t really concentrating on the puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29581
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where we’re having some unseasonably warm weather, which is a welcome change from the cold snap we had a couple of weeks ago. 22°C forecast for today and as high as 27°C by Friday, I might have to get my shorts out!
Today we have the usual Monday fare. Elegantly clued and not too difficult. A nice start to the crosswording week.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29569
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where we have been spared the very heavy snowfall which is causing chaos elsewhere in Spain. We had three days of pretty continuous rain and it’s very cold by Costa Blanca standards. Only 8°C during the day on Saturday and 1°C overnight. At 0830 this morning when I started this post it was 3°C. Apparently it will be Wednesday before normal service will be resumed when we are forecast 16°C and wall-to-wall sunshine. We live in hope. Continue reading “DT 29569”