Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27018
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja, where pobbers seebs to have yet adother code id the dose!! Two days of cold and rain haven’t helped.
Thought I’d do the blog tonight as I may be “hors de combat” tomorrow with some serious man-flu! This puzzle was quite a bit of fun I thought and it came as something of a relief after my last attempt at blogging what I described at the time as a recycled Toughie! There’s a nice mix of clue types and nothing too mind-bending.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27006
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Well, was this a recycled Toughie or what? Hardest back-pager for some time methinks. There again, it could just be me having an off day I suppose! I found it hard to solve and it didn’t get any easier when writing the hints, which was a bit of a surprise as things usually look much more simple with hindsight. Thanks to the setter for a bit of unexpected brain strain which I did enjoy a lot, once I realised I could actually solve it without screaming for help!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 27000
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Looking at the puzzle number I was half expecting some sort of trickery but there’s nothing there that I can see – but that means very little!
While solving I thought it was very tricky and was well surprised when I saw my time when I clicked the submit button, so 3* it will have to be. Some great stuff from RayT as usual, including the Queen and a fair bit of innuendo. Splendid fun and very nearly worth 5* enjoyment but I’ll save that in case his next one is even better!
Definitions are underlined in the clue (but I don’t know how to do the new way to hide the answers).
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26994
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Hola from the Vega Baja. Sorry but this wasn’t my favourite puzzle. It has a lot of reversals and “A (from the clue)” which started to become a little irritating. I’ll be interested to hear your views.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26976
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. I thought this one was at the tricky end of 3* but I did enjoy it a lot. There are some nice bits of misdirection and some clever clues. I’ll be interested to hear your opinions.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26968
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. OK, I know, it’s confusing to find me here on a Tuesday! After the musical chairs of the last few weeks I have to say that I am certainly “Bewildered of Almoradí” but . . . Falcon has also moved from Wednesday to Thursday (along with me) and it’s his turn this week. So, as Pommette is in the UK and I don’t have a lot to do, I thought I’d give Gazza a well-earned break – he certainly does more than his fair share on this blog!. (Thanks muchly Gazza – I don’t know where we’d all be without you!)
Anyway, on to the puzzle. I thought it was pretty tricky for a back-pager but that might just be me being distracted by the US Open tennis final – puzzle solved while watching Andy Murray’s fantastic victory so I’ve no idea about time but I reckon 4* for a back pager isn’t unreasonable. For entertainment? I have to say the tennis was better than the crossword! Too many anagrams for my taste but quite enjoyable overall.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26964
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Hola from the Vega Baja. Got the right day again this week so things is looking up!
Well, I’ve no idea how long this would have taken me under normal circumstances. I solved it while watching the film “Memphis Belle” (for about the third or fourth time) on the telly so I’ve based the difficulty rating on how easy it was to write the hints. Please feel free to disagree, as you usually do! The film was a lot better than the puzzle and most of the pennies dropped during the commercials!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26958
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. I’m actually doing the review on the right day this week – it is Thursday isn’t it?
Not sure about the setter of this one. There is a Queen clue but it didn’t feel like a RayT to me but perhaps he’ll drop by and let us know. Plenty of American flavouring scattered through the puzzle so beware! I quite enjoyed it but found it a tad tricky in places, but there are enough ‘gimmes’ and a few anagrams to get you going.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26953
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Hola from the Vega Baja, where it remains very hot and sticky. First a big thanks to Gazza for swapping days this week. I was being Mrs Mop again at our friend’s apartment yesterday and had got my dates wrong – I thought it was today! So far since I switched to the Thursday puzzle I’ve managed one out of three on the right day – I’ll be getting the sack if I don’t buck my ideas up!
Anyway, on to the puzzle. Not my favourite this week and a bit tricky. Seemed a bit of a slog and, like Dave said yesterday, I can only admit to a sense of relief when it was all over. All the clues are very fair but, for me, it somehow lacked the usual Giovanni sparkle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26946
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. I found this puzzle to be very enjoyable, perhaps because I solved it this morning instead of in the middle of last night!. There are quite a few penny-drop moments and some clever cluing so definitely a 4* for me. It should have been only 2* difficulty but on first pass I confidently put in two answers for across clues that later turned out to be wrong, which of course held me up for some time with the downs! Quite a bit of chemistry included, surely that couldn’t have been done on purpose!
I thought it might be RayT’s turn today but now I’m not sure. There is one Queen reference but it’s a bit short on innuendo. Perhaps he’ll drop by and let us know.
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