Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26252
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***– Enjoyment ****
Giovanni rarely disappoints, and this one certainly doesn’t with beautifully constructed clues. Let us know your opinion of it in a comment.
As usual the answers are hidden between the curly brackets under the relevant clue. If you need to see one, just highlight the space between the brackets.
I’m afraid that you’re going to get a double helping of me today. Since both Anax and Big Dave are away in London, I’ll be back later with a review of the Toughie (and in case you’re in two minds about whether to try the Toughie, I thoroughly recommend it – it’s not as difficult as some of Micawber’s, but it is just as entertaining).
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26246
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We have a good selection of smooth, entertaining clues from Giovanni today, but sprinkled among them are quite a few pretty easy ones (and I dithered between two and three stars for difficulty – I think that this is a definite 2½). Do you agree or not? In either case we’d love to get a comment telling us what you think of it.
The answers, should you need them, are hidden between the curly brackets under the relevant clue. Just select the space between the brackets to reveal them.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26240
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We have a typical Giovanni today, a good mixture of clues but nothing too exciting. Let us know your views in a comment.
For new readers, the answers are hidden between the curly brackets under the relevant clues. Just drag your cursor through the space between the brackets to reveal the solution.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26234
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Giovanni has given us probably the most difficult puzzle of the week. Please remember that the gradings above are a personal opinion, i.e. just my view, which has no more validity than anyone else’s view, so let us know your opinion.
The answers, should you need to see them, are hidden inside the curly brackets. Just drag your cursor through the space between the brackets to reveal them.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26228
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that this Giovanni puzzle was on the hard side with two answers (25a and 24d) that I’d never heard of (although, to be fair, both were reachable from the checking letters and wordplay). However, I did have to look up the meanings of both, which is fine if you have reference books and Google handy, but not so fine if you’re trying to solve the puzzle on the move. What do you think? – as always we’d love to hear your views.
For those who need to see an answer or two, they are here between the curly brackets under the relevant clue – just select the space between the brackets to reveal.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26222
Hints and tips by Gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
[Today we have a new blogger joining the team. I know you will all recognise him from his proliferation of comments – well now the poacher has turned gamekeeper. Gnomethang will only be able to participate from time to time, but if his first post is anything to go by let’s hope it is a frequent occurrence. Thanks also to Gazza for stepping aside today to make this possible. BD]
Morning All! First of all I must say a big thank you to Big Dave and Gazza for giving me the opportunity to guest this DT review. It has been fun to do and makes you think about every clue.
Now on to the puzzle: As usual from Giovanni we have a series of smooth and fair clues with good definitions and some very nice surface reading. As with the last two weeks I think that these have been from the more gentle side of Giovanni (I am comparing with a few from the beginning of the year) and I was wavering between two and three stars for difficulty but do please let us know what you thought.
You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post. Don’t forget that you can read the answers by highlighting between the curly brackets.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26216
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This is just about the easiest Giovanni crossword I can remember, so all of our usual correspondents should be able to finish it. As we always say, just because it’s relatively easy does not mean that it can’t be entertaining, and it has a fair number of clues which I enjoyed.
Let us know what you thought of it in a comment and please don’t forget to click on one of the stars at the bottom to show how you rate it.
For new readers, the answer to each clue is contained within the curly brackets beneath the clue, but masked out so that you can’t see it accidentally. If you do want to see the answer, just highlight the space between the brackets.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26210
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Absolutely superb stuff from Giovanni today. Some brilliant clues and some real laugh out loud moments.
I have really enjoyed doing this crosword and then writing the blog. I will be back on Monday (I hope) to tackle my first Rufus blog, until then please feel free to leave a comment.
If the hints are not enough to allow you to derive the answer, just highlight the space between the curly brackets!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26204
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
The absence of Clued Up this morning meant that I had to go out to get a paper and type in the clues (so apologies for any transcription errors). It also means that I’ve been unable to verify my answers, so you may find that I’ve got the whole thing totally wrong!
I thought that today’s Giovanni was a strange mixture of very simple clues (especially 23d) and some answers (13a, 14d and 18d) that I’d never heard of. The four 3-letter clues in the middle all have fully-checked letters so that it’s possible to get an answer without looking at the clue at all!
Your comments are as always very welcome, and may I take the opportunity to wish all our readers a very enjoyable holiday weekend.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26198
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
We have a fairly tough challenge from Giovanni today (with three words which were new to me) but all clued in his usual, impeccably fair way. Let us know your thoughts on the puzzle by sending a comment, and please remember to grade the puzzle on how much you enjoyed it by clicking on one of the stars below.
The answers are in the review, but hidden so that you don’t see them by accident. To see one, drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets under the relevant clue.
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