Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26117
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Today’s crossword from our Monday Maestro posed some difficulties which I had to surmount before completing the puzzle. At one stage, after the initial flurry of quick fills, I had ten to go: 10a, 14a, 28a, 29a, 30a and 7d, 18d, 19d,21d and 26d. Luckily these fell one by one: why the bottom left corner held on till the end was because of my own mistake in writing wrongly the second word in the long phrasal 11d. I got wise to it only after some crossings wouldn’t gel.
Clues I liked especially: 20a, 1d.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26111
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
An enjoyable outing on Monday morning.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26105
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A pleasant start to the week with a crossword by our Monday Maestro.
I was held up for some minutes by fewer than half-a-dozen clues. The last to go in were 1a, 9a and 5d and 7d.
As usual each answer is hidden within the curly brackets so that it doesn’t hit your eye. If you want your eye to hit it, just select the white space.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26099
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A satisfying puzzle from our Monday Maestro. Just one clue, 29ac, may perhaps hold you up if you haven’t come across the ploy before.
To see the answers hidden within the curly brackets, select the white space.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26093
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I enjoyed solving this crossword from our Monday Maestro. The grid is cyclically symmetrical, that is, the pattern is the same whichever way you turn.
Clues 1a and 31a, in symmetrical positions in the grid, belong to a type known as &lit, which I think is short for ‘and literally so’ [we also use the term all-in-one for these – BD] – for definition of the word required, we have to reread the clue in its entirety. Both these clues lead to words from the world of professions – one teaching lines to children and the other making locomotives run on lines.
For me the Clue of the Crossword is 3d – all components in this charade are from roads and “by-pass” is a noun in the surface reading but a verb as definition for word required.
The last to go in was 13a – for non-UK solvers it’s always place names that are the bugbears.
As usual the solutions are whitened; please highlight the space within the curly brackets and they will show themselves.
Please do leave a Comment to record your experience with this crossword.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26087
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Today Rishi joins us as a guest blogger and he hopes to be with us most Mondays. He will be familiar to followers of Derek Harrison’s Crossword Centre Forum (see the link in the sidebar) and he has also contributed to Fifteensquared. I’m sure you will all welcome him and appreciate looking at today’s puzzle from a different perspective. BD
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I have pleasure in blogging (from Madras that is Chennai, India) on our Monday Maestro’s crossword.
I am familiar with Rufus’s clueing technique from regularly solving his syndicated puzzle that appears in a local paper. I have solved DT crosswords in paperback collections but without knowing the authorship of the puzzles.
I have seen the DT crossword reproduced in a lesser-known upcountry paper but I don’t know if it still appears in it.
The answers below are hidden so that you don’t see them until you want to. Select the white space inside the curly brackets beneath the clue and the answer will unfold itself.
If you disagree with any interpretation of mine, there is the Comments section where you can have your say.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26081
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I struggled a bit with the North West corner – mainly because it was a while before I realised that (6-4) for 1 across was really (5’1-4). It seems strange that hyphens are shown in the enumeration, but not apostrophes; perhaps that would give too much away. Many thanks to our Monday Maestro for a good, solid puzzle (once I had overcome the aforementioned hang-up!).
This weekend, being the coldest for some time, was when our central heating decided to stop working. The lateness of this post is due, in part, to the presence of the engineer. His prognosis was that the controller was faulty, which he demonstrated by switching it on, off and back on again. Sometimes it worked, and others it didn’t! A trip to the plumbing supply shop has been added to today’s itinerary.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26075
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
More Magic from our Monday Maestro. Start the week with this relatively easy puzzle that should give a lot of satisfaction to many.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26069
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
You know just what to expect from the Monday Maestro, and once again he delivers. Rufus is universally recommended by all in Crosswordland as the best setter for those new to cryptic puzzles. This is a relatively easy one but a pleasure to solve.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26063
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Another excellent start to the week from our Monday Maestro.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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