Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26944
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja, where it is ridiculously hot and sticky tonight (ask Prolixic if you don’t believe me!). Forecast 37C and 74% humidity for later today – Agosto en Espana, yuk! Anyway, we’ve got a bit of musical chairs again this week! Big Dave yesterday instead of Libellule and now me today. Pommette’s in the UK again (she’s now on first-name terms with the Ryanair cabin crew that are based in Alicante) and so, having no job list to do and therefore being at a bit of a loose end, I’m giving Gazza a well-deserved day off. Not sure who’s doing the rest of the week but I’ll be back again for the back pager on Thursday, which will be my regular slot in the future.
Don’t know who the setter is today but I really liked this puzzle, not too difficult but enough to make you think a bit – perfect for a Tuesday (at least I think it’s Tuesday)!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26938
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Hola from the Vega Baja. Now listen very carefully, I shall say this only once! Libellule usually does Mondays but filled in for Gazza last Friday and so Gazza returned the favour yesterday. Gazza normally does Tuesdays and I now do Thursdays, and I’ve no idea who’s going to do Wednesdays in future, but I can’t do my Thursday slot this week so I’m filling in for Gazza today. (Simples?) I think I might be losing the plot here – what day is it anyway?
Now to the crossword! Didn’t really enjoy this one very much and it didn’t get any better as I wrote the review. Easy enough to solve but not much entertainment value or grins as far as I can see. Be interested to hear your views.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26934
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. No, it’s not Wednesday! Yesterday was Falcon’s turn but we’ve also had a bit of a reorganisation and in future I’ll be blogging the Thursday puzzles as my regular slot. So, it’s a big thankyou and goodbye from me to Jay and hello to RayT and the other Thursday tormentors!
I think this must be a RayT as it has a fair bit of innuendo and a couple of Queens. Not too difficult but very enjoyable IMHO. I’ve no doubt that there will be howls of protest from some quarters about the 2* difficulty rating but I rate as I find, so 2* it is!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26927
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Another fine crossword from the Wednesday Wizard. There’s a few anagrams to get you going and some clever clues as well. Not too difficult but I really enjoyed it. How about you?
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26923
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. Pommette’s in the UK again this week so, as I’m at a loose end (!), Gazza has kindly given me the opportunity to blog this Giovanni puzzle. Not sure I really enjoyed it all though, which is unusual for one of his! I thought that there were some very nice clues and some enjoyable penny-drop moments but also some slightly dodgy bits (IMHO) and the gratuitous inclusion of some rather obscure words. Maybe it’s just me being a grumpy old man this morning. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26921
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Today we have the Wednesday Wizard with his slightly trickier than usual hat on! Some very clever stuff and very enjoyable as the pennies dropped but not quite the “Stinker” as predicted yesterday! There again, you may all disagree with my assessment, wouldn’t be the first time! Won’t mention the weather apart from to say it did rain here yesterday morning – for a whole hour!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26915
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. In view of the weather in the UK recently I won’t mention what it’s like here! Today we have the usual enjoyable fare from the Wednesday Wizard. Not too tricky but with a couple to cause a bit of head scratching.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26903
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. On the night shift again! Been out to dinner with some friends and got home at exactly 0100CEST so the puzzle had just come on line and it seemed rude to ignore it! Glad I didn’t as I really enjoyed it as an after dinner treat (if I’d gone to bed at that time I would have been very grumpy in the morning)! Maybe it’s the post prandial brandy but I thought one or two of the clues were a bit tricky but overall not too hard, maybe only 2* for most of you but it was just into 3* time for me. Nice spread of clue types today though so that added to the fun.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26897
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hola from the Vega Baja. I quite enjoyed this puzzle but I know some of you will disagree. There seems to be more than the usual fiddling about with first and/or last letters and bits of words. I’m not sure why but my favourite TV character is hidden in the grid! Can’t see anything else but I usually miss these things so there might well be something there.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26891
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where the weather continues to be the weather, been told off for mentioning it so I won’t!. Well, I loved this puzzle from the Wednesday Wizard – tricky enough not to be a write-in but solvable with a bit of preservation. Maybe some of you might give it 4* for difficulty and some only 2* – be interesting to see the comments.
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