Toughie No 3742 by Weatherman
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Weatherman set us an enjoyable, not very difficult, Toughie, where the unknowns were fairly clued
Category: Crosswords
Hints and tips for completing Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
DT 31322
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31322
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. I found today’s puzzle to be the hardest of the week so far, but everything is fairly clued. I didn’t know the definition in 1a, or the little ‘un in 22a, which has put me off certain dairy products for life! My favourites were 13a, 28a and 11d. I also liked the Quickie pun. Many thanks to our setter.
Sunday Toughie No 237 (full review)
Sunday Toughie No 237 by Hudson
Full Review by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
This puzzle was published on 09/08/26
What a lovely surprise to find that Hudson has joined the ranks of the Sunday Toughie setters with this cracking puzzle.
Across Clues
1a Fish cut by sailor (8)
SKIPJACK: a verb to cut or skive off (school, say) and a common word (often followed by ‘tar’) for a sailor. Continue reading “Sunday Toughie No 237 (full review)”
ST 3381 (Full Review)
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3381
A full review by Rahmat Ali
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
This puzzle was published on 9th August 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Kolkata. Dada has given us a slightly tough puzzle this Sunday that was still enjoyable to solve and now I present to you a full review of his puzzle. Hope to have your valuable feedback and comments. Continue reading “ST 3381 (Full Review)”
Toughie 3741
Toughie No 3741 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings and welcome to another Toughie Week! Many thanks to Gazza and ALP for filing in whist I was off on my Jollies – Audouin’s gull, Cory’s, Scopoli’s, Balearic and Manx shearwaters, crested tit, spotless starling, black redstart, long-finned pilot whale, common dolphin, loggerhead turtle, and a (probably Fin) whale were the wildlife highlights, plus 70-odd seconds of total eclipse, so I’m pretty happy with that haul!
Dada had given us a stiff test today, certainly meriting its Toughie label. There are some very clever and inventive clues but I didn’t warm to it as much as I was expecting, although I can’t really work out why. 16a and 26a get honourable mentions, but I’m giving my top prize today to 18a. Thanks to Dada for robustly knocking away the post-holiday cobwebs.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
DT 31321
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31321
Hints and tips by Huntsman
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ****
Mercifully much cooler today in Harpenden & I suspect we may even have had a drop or two of wet stuff overnight.
The usual elegance from Anthony Plumb today. I found it a wee bit trickier than yesterday’s puzzle. Smylers awarded that one a ** difficulty rating so I’ll follow suit & wait to see what others make of it.
I see Dada is over in t’other place with what seems at first glance a reasonably approachable affair.
As usual there is a selection of music to enjoy or ignore.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED & the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons. Please leave a comment below telling us what you thought & how you got on with the puzzle.
DT 31320
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31320
Hints and tips by Smylers
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ★★ – Enjoyment ★★
Hello. Thank you to Falcon for covering this slot last week, when I was returning a hire car from our holiday in my usual ‘blogging time’ before work. If you want to know where we went, you should be able to triangulate our location from these distances (click to enlarge):
![a signpost pointing in lots of directions, with labels including ‘Christmas Isle 12790’, ‘Tahiti 11830’, ‘[Ne]w Zealand 12090’, ‘Botany Bay 13325’, and ‘Alaska 16990’](https://i0.wp.com/bigdave44.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Captain-Cook-signpost.jpg)
Rookie Corner 640
Sunday Toughie 238 (Hints)
Sunday Toughie No 238
by Beam
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
Beam with his 24th and 25th Sunday Toughie, has sandwiched Hudson’s first. Lots of Beam trademarks, including no anagrams, so I hope you find the checkers to finish today
A generous 16a and 16d clues, and I have hinted at half. I will try and nudge if any tricky clues haven’t survived the cutting room
Here we go, Folks…
EV 1760 (Hints)
Enigmatic Variations 1760 (Hints)
Poster by Robyn
Hints and tips by Phibs
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
This week I gave Claude the chance to impress.