Toughie No 3727 by Kcit
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***/****
Fairly breezy for a Thursday Toughie. 26a was unknown to me but the wordplay’s pretty clear. Having said that, 1a was the last to fall. Not because it’s tricky – it’s not – but because the definition is anathema to me. I have long tried – and failed miserably – to ban them. What on earth is their point? They just get in the bloomin’ way when you’re making the bed! The floor, as ever, is yours.
Continue reading “Toughie 3723”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31299
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** Enjoyment *****
This is a proper end-of-week puzzle with a reasonable amount of GK and a number of cleverly misleading definitions. I loved it.
Continue reading “DT 31299”
Toughie No 3726 by Potoroo
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ***
Potoroos second Toughie was definitely a proper Toughie with lots to think about and quite a bit of brow-furrowing parsing to sort out so it was a good job I got up extremely early this morning as I had to solve the crossword, prepare and schedule the blog and feed Tim the Tortoise, before having to dash out for an eye screening appointment.
Continue reading “Toughie 3726”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31298
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. I found today’s puzzle to be between yesterday’s and Monday’s in terms of difficulty, with a couple of words that were new to me, and one or two clues that took a while to parse. My favourites today were 13a, 17a, 7d and the brilliant reverse lurker in 16d. I also enjoyed the Quickie pun. Many thanks to our setter.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31297
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ***/****
A ‘typically Tuesdayish’ & perfectly enjoyable Anthony Plumb puzzle that I’d rate on a par with yesterday’s offering in terms of difficulty.
Though I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet I see Hudson is on duty over in t’other place so that’ll be a puzzle guaranteed to be a good ‘un & well worth checking out if seeking a further challenge. Don’t let the Toughie title put you off as generally the Tuesday offerings are no more difficult than the back-pagers near the end of the week.
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.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31296
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where I and well over 5000 other homeowners are still cleaning up after the deluge on July 1. The bizarre aspect of the storm is the vastly different rainfall in various parts of the city. Some areas received more than 11 inches of rain in two or three hours while other areas received scarcely more than half an inch.
I found today’s puzzle a slight step up in difficulty from the usual standard for Monday but I may just have been overly tired from all my cleanup chores this week.
I’m afraid there are no illustrations this week. Every attempt at uploading an image was met with an error message from the server.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Continue reading “DT 31296”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31295 (Hints)
The Saturday Crossword Club
(hosted by crypticsue)
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Continue reading “DT 31295 (Hints)”
Toughie No 3724 by Dharma
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Enjoyable but very gentle for a Friday Toughie – thanks to Dharma. Having a single 3-letter anagram did seem slightly odd and I wondered whether there had been a last-minute change to what had been intended to be an anagram-free puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31289
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 11th July 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A nice, friendly Saturday puzzle from the setter that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and valuable comments. Continue reading “DT 31289 (Full Review)”