Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing the regular Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
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BD Rating - Difficulty **** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Today we have a puzzle for lovers of clever wordplay. Continue reading "DT 30910"
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This puzzle was published on 19th April 2025
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A nice, straightforward Saturday puzzle from NYDK that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback.
Continue reading “DT 30905 (full review)”
Toughie No 3467 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Silvanus is as enjoyable as always. Many thanks to him.
Continue reading “Toughie 3467”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30909
Hints and tips by Shabbo
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
No prizes for “Guess the Setter” today – most of the hallmarks of RayT are in evidence, including sweetheart at 3d (although he is again teasing us on this one), single word solutions and brevity of clueing in the Cryptic and single word clues and solutions in the Quickie. Don’t waste one of your hard-earned loonies on this one, Senf.
If my arithmetic is correct, Ray has used just one word too many to average five words per clue. Surely we can find just one disposable word in this puzzle…?
In the blog below, the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED and the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the “Click Here” buttons. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on and what you thought of the puzzle. Please also try to be positive – it’s only a bit of fun.
Many thanks to our setter and the DT Crossword Team.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment *****
The Telegraph Puzzles site asks the question ‘can you crack our hardest crossword?… Continue reading
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BD Rating – Difficulty 2.5* – Enjoyment 4*
A Happy St George’s Day and a very good Wednesday morning from Winnipeg where, on Sunday, we exceeded 20 degrees for the first time since October 20th last year – six months!
For Manders, not a Pink-Footed Goose in sight, about 130kms West of Winnipeg and nowhere near a sea or ocean.
For me, etc (I have to say that for Terence), an entertaining midweek puzzle which could be the work of Twmbarlwm, we haven’t ‘seen’ him for a few weeks, or someone else. Whomsoever it is, thank you.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***/****
This is my last blog for a couple of weeks as I’m off to the Algarve to scatter a few balls around some fine golf courses. Shabbo has kindly agreed to step in so you’ll be in far more reliable blogging hands than mine.
I had a wee bit of brain fog in the SW this morning so completion took a good bit longer than is usually the case for an Anthony Plumb production. Suspect that was just me & it’s a Typically Tuesdayish puzzle which won’t present many, if any, problems for most. I can’t say I thought it one of his top drawer puzzles but as ever a pleasant solve.
In the following hints, definitions are underlined, indicators are mostly in parentheses, and answers are revealed by clicking where shown as usual. Please leave a comment below on how you got on with the puzzle.
Happy Easter. Last Monday X-Type commented: “See you again, quite soon”, so I’m presuming today’s crossword is another from the same mind.
Yesterday one of the children and I got up before dawn to walk up Ilkley Moor to the Cow & Calf rocks, for the Churches Together Easter ‘Son-Rise’ service. The sun just put in an appearance between the clouds.
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****