Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28819
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where the heat wave seems to have abated a little – it was only 32°C yesterday and it even rained a tad in the morning.
I suspect today’s setter is the same one as in my last blog two weeks ago. Similar quirky style which I quite enjoyed. Again it’s a little tricky in places if you’re not on the wavelength so I’ve given it three stars even though I actually solved it well within two star time. Last time the puzzle seemed to split the commentariat into two camps of tricky and benign so it will be interesting to see if the same is true this week.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28807
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning from a lovely sunny morning in Los Alcázares. The previous clients in our apartment went home last Monday and the next don’t arrive until tomorrow so we’re having a bit of a holiday. A good idea in view of the heat wave currently gripping Spain. It’s a lot cooler here by the sea than it is in Almoradí where we live.
I don’t know who today’s setter is but, whoever it is, he/she has done a great job. I really enjoyed this puzzle which I found just tricky enough to exercise the brain but not so hard as to fry it which is something the heat wave can do without any assistance.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28789
Hints and tips by a duntish* pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I have to confess to being rather hungover this morning so the puzzle might be a lot easier than I found it. There was some serious drowning of sorrows last night after England managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory which nearly matched the level of the biblical drowning that caused that chap Noah to build an ark.
Anyway to the puzzle. I’m pretty sure this is a RayT production as all the markers are there apart from Her Majesty has taken the day off. Perhaps she too is recovering from a drowning of sorrows. As I said I found it a tad tricky but very enjoyable and I hope you found it the same.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28771
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Hola from the Vega Baja on a pleasantly warm morning. I don’t know who today’s setter is but I suspect it’s the same one as on Thursday two weeks ago. Again, it’s not my favourite puzzle but you will probably disagree. There are ten clues requiring the insertion of something into something else and eight clues involving anagrams which are my two least liked clue constructions. It’s a bit tricky in places and I nearly went for **** difficulty but after looking at the clock decided to leave it as ***. I wonder what you all thought of it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28766
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from a warm and sunny Los Alcázares where I’m having a few days break and standing in for Deep Threat today. I’m not certain but I’ve a feeling I’ve blogged a Friday puzzle back in the days when Gazza was the regular Man Friday. Anyway it makes a pleasant change from my usual Thursday fare.
We have here a fairly typical Giovanni puzzle with a couple of tricky bits and a couple of religious bits but there’s enough gimmes to get you going. Overall I reckon it’s about average difficulty for a back pager and I really enjoyed it so it was ***/**** for me. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone agrees.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28759
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Hola and welcome to definitely not a RayThursday, he’s in the Toughie seat today. I’ve no idea who the setter is, and maybe it’s just me being a bit of a grumpy old man this morning, but I really didn’t get along with this puzzle. I’ll be interested to see if you all agree.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28741
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja and welcome to a RayThursday. This puzzle will probably cause the usual split in opinions as it’s a classic RayT. It has all the usual idiosyncracies and it’s full of stretched synonyms and off-the-wall definitions. I enjoyed it a lot but thought it a bit of a tricky little rascal. I only got four of the acrosses and six of the downs on first pass and it took me longer to finish than I’ve spent on a DT back pager for ages. I’ll be interested to see if that’s just me having an off morning or whether it really is a misplaced Beam Toughie.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28729
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Hola from the Vega Baja on a bright sunny morning. I solved this puzzle in ** time but I’ve gone for *** difficulty because there are a few obscure bits that required a bit of head scratching. I’ve deducted a star from the enjoyment as there are no less than five clues which use the same containment indicator and I was beginning to get a bit irritated by the time I’d finished typing the hints. I’ll be interested to see if anyone else noticed.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28717
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja and welcome to a non-RayThursday. I don’t know who the setter is but there are some clever bits of wordplay here and some very original anagram indicators. I quite enjoyed it and hope you did too.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 28705
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Hola from a sunny Vega Baja where spring appears to have sprung, although the forecast for the next week is a bit of a curate’s egg. A bit like this puzzle really. It’s not particularly difficult and there’s some good stuff but also a lot of repetition of bits of wordplay. For example, there are three clues where you’re given some anagram fodder but you have to remove a single letter from it and I’ve typed “from the clue” seven times in this review, twice in one clue! Overall it was beginning to irritate me by the time I’d finished it.
I’ll be interested to hear what you made of it. Continue reading “DT 28705”