Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29557
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. I hope you all had as good a Christmas as possible under the current circumstances. Pommette and I had a quiet time at home having cancelled our usual trip to Benidorm, although we did have a rather enjoyable pizza party with a few friends on boxing day via Skype.
I thought today’s puzzle was fairly benign but still enjoyable. There’s a couple of veiled allusions Peter Sellers films and one clue that’s spookily similar to one that was in yesterday’s puzzle. All-in-all I thought it was pretty good.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29546
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where the summer still continues to hang around. We had 25°C last Friday which is very unusual for December but it’s a bit chilly this morning. Overcast as well but the forecast is for improvement as the morning goes on.
I found today’s puzzle at the easier end of the Monday spectrum and nearly gave it a star less for difficulty. There are a few chestnuty bits and gimmes as well as five anagrams so I don’t think many of you will have had any trouble getting a foothold. There’s a couple of more complicated clues so ** is probably about right. As usual I’ll be interested to hear what you all though of it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29534
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja on a sunny but chilly morning. I really should be on double time today as it’s a public holiday here. It’s San Andreas day, the patron saint of Almoradí, and normally there would be a big parade and festivities in the town but with the Covid-19 restrictions that isn’t going to happen this year.
On to the puzzle. It’s another elegant puzzle as I’ve come to expect on a Monday. I really enjoyed it as there’s enough head scratching material to keep one on one’s toes but a few gimmes to get a start. There’s also seven clues involving anagrams so I know many of you will be happy.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29522
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where the summer seems to have made a bit of a comeback for a few days. 26°C yesterday and forecast 27°C today and tomorrow. I’m not complaining.
I thought today’s’ puzzle from the double punster was a bit on the tricky side. Some of the synonyms are a tad stretched so took a bit of head scratching. However there are enough gimmes and anagrams to give you a good start so it’s quite solvable. I found the tussle quite enjoyable and hope you all did too.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 23510
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where the Covid restrictions have been tightened a bit. It’s not a lockdown like in England as shops and bars remain open and we’re free to move around but there are restrictions on travel. One is not allowed the cross regional borders so I have to remain within the area of the Communitat Valenciana which is a pain because our apartment is in the next door region of Murcia so we can’t go there.
After a couple of slightly tricky Monday puzzles for my last two blogs we seem to be back to normal today. There’s a couple of clues with some complicated wordplay but on the whole I found it fairly straightforward.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29498
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja on a cool but sunny morning.
I didn’t find today’s puzzle too tricky but that might be because the four 15 letter answers all fell fairly quickly to give lots of checkers. I think if you don’t get them early on then the puzzle may turn out to be made of sterner stuff. There seems to be a larger than usual helping of anagrams which will please many of you. I found it quite enjoyable so I’ll be interested to see if you agree.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29486
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where the summer seems reluctant to end, although it is getting markedly cooler during the night and early morning.
Maybe it’s just me but I thought today’s puzzle was a bit trickier than recent Monday’s have been. I’ll be interested to see who agrees and who though it was a breeze. There’s a couple of longish anagrams and a couple of chestnuts to give you a start so I don’t think it will prove too difficult.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29474
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where summer appears to have returned since my last blog a couple of weeks ago. The temperature has climbed over 30°C every day for the last week and it’s forecast to stay the same for the rest of this week.
Today’s crossword isn’t as easy the last one I blogged but I don’t think these hints will be needed much. There’s a couple of meanings of words which I hadn’t come across before but the wordplay is fairly clear so a quick look in the dictionary to confirm is all that’s required.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29462
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja where summer is coming to its end – the temperature hasn’t got over 30°C since last weekend and the humidity has dropped big time. It’s really very pleasant!
Either I’m on the top of my game today or this puzzle is the easiest for quite some time. It was my fastest solve ever when in the blogging seat which is the only time I solve against the clock. Still, it was enjoyable while it lasted. I’ll be interested to see if you found it the same.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 29450
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where summer is continuing big time. Very hot and sticky and I only bother to put my T-shirt on if I’m going out, and that’s not often in view of the increasing incidence of Covid-19. Fortunately Alicante province seems to be relatively safe but I’m not risking any more than I have to. Continue reading “DT 29450”