Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26597
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hello once again from the Vega Baja. We have a tricky little rascal today (to borrow pommette’s phrase) which has a theme, a bit unusual for a Wednesday puzzle so perhaps this one isn’t from Jay. I nearly gave it 4* for difficulty but then realised I’d spent a good portion of my solving time trying to fit a nine letter word into 24a before noticing the enumeration is (4,5) – D’oh!!!!! Continue reading “DT 26597”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26591
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hello from the Vega Baja. A pleasant, and not too hard, offering this week from our Wednesday Wizard. I seem to have used quite a bit of blue highlighter on this one so I’ve given it 4* for enjoyment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26581
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola again from the Vega Baja – bet you didn’t expect to see me again this week! Gazza is unavailable this morning so I’ve taken up the reins for him.
I’ve never blogged anything other than a Wednesday Jay puzzle so this was an interesting experience. Giovanni has provided a splendid puzzle with some elegant and complicated clues but, thankfully, it’s nowhere near as hard as last week’s!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26579
Hints and tips by Pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola From the Vega Baja on a beautiful morning. Just right for solving outside in the courtyard before it gets too hot. As usual an excellent Wednesday puzzle. I toyed with giving it 4* for difficulty as there are a couple of obscure words but they’re both fairly clued so 3 it is! Be interested to hear your views.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26573
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where there are too many mossies! One has been feasting on my right ankle while I was doing today’s puzzle!
More Wednesday wizardry today from Jay(?). Did the midnight solve again but haven’t got the grumpy head on so it must be good, at least I enjoyed it a lot, hope you guys do as well. Couple of tricky ones, as usual, but overall not too difficult so only 2* difficulty from me. After 10 weeks blogging Jay’s puzzles I think I must be getting on the right wavelength. I’ll be interested in your thoughts.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26561
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hello again from the Vega Baja where Summer has arrived in the last few days!
I really enjoyed solving this puzzle but, as usual, writing the hints was far harder than the solve! I’m beginning to think Jay (presumably) is doing this on purpose to make my life difficult! This is my 10th blog of a Wednesday puzzle and for the first time we have a pangram, which I didn’t spot until putting in my last answer! (Has the DT slipped in a Shamus puzzle I wonder?).
There are a few tricky clues in this so I’ve given it 3* for difficulty but at least there are also a few easier ones to give you a start.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26555
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello again from the Vega Baja. You’ll be pleased to know that I solved this one at a more sensible time of day than I did last week’s so it’s only getting 2* for difficulty!
The usual excellent stuff from Jay (presumably) with a nice mix of clue types and some unusual uses of common crossword terms. While I didn’t find the solving hard, writing hints for some of these was at least a 5* rating!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26549
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from the Vega Baja on a beautiful sunny morning. At least the weather here has resumed normal service over the last few days!
Maybe it’s just me but I think Jay has raised the bar a little on this one and based on my solving time I’ve had to give it 4* for difficulty. (I really must stop staying up late to solve the crossword. It doesn’t come online until 0100CEST and my brain isn’t really in gear at that time of the morning! )
A nice mix of clues with a couple of obscure words and phrases to get you thinking.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26543
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from a not so sunny Spain! Pommette and I may have taken the sun with us to the UK but we seem to have forgotten to bring it back!
After my rather grumpy blog a couple of weeks ago I’m pleased to say I thoroughly enjoyed this fine puzzle from Jay (presumably it is he) and recommend it to all. There are a few fairly easy clues to get you started and a few to make you scratch your head a bit – a nice mixture IMO. I took longer in the NE corner than the rest of the puzzle put together but looking back I’m not sure why that was. I’ll be interested to hear how you get on with it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26531
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Buenas Dias from a gloriously sunny Cheshire, I seem to have brought the Spanish weather with me!
Maybe it’s just me having an off day, after spending 7 hours driving here from the far end of Cornwall yesterday afternoon, but I’m not at all sure that this is a Jay puzzle. I certainly found it a lot trickier than recent Wednesdays and it doesn’t seem to me to have the usual flair we’ve come to expect from Jay. I’ll be interested to see what you guys think of it.
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