Toughie No 3772 by Sparks
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Thanks to Sparks for a very enjoyable puzzle containing some cunning bits of misdirection.… Continue reading
Category: DT Cryptic Crosswords
Hints and tips for completing the regular Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
DT 31366
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31366
Hints and tips by Mr K
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BD Rating - Difficulty **** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Continue reading "DT 31366"
DT 31361 (Full Review)
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31361
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 3rd October 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A truly marvellous 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 31361 (Full Review)”
Toughie 3771
Toughie No 3771 by Kcit
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment **/***
Very relaxed for a Thursday Toughie, with a one-in-four anagram count adding further grease to the wheel. Is it just me or is the leap to a Friday Elgar growing wider by the week? ‘Twas alway a step-up – and rightly so – but the gap now seems interplanetary! The floor, as ever, is yours.
DT 31365
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31365
Hints and Tips by Senf
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BD Rating – Difficulty 2.5* – Enjoyment 4.5*
A very good Thursday morning from Winnipeg where, on Tuesday, I carried out my civic duty of (advanced) voting in this month’s municipal elections. Interestingly, at the municipal council level in Manitoba there are no political parties. While the political ‘leanings’ of candidates may be known, every council is an essentially non-partisan ‘committee’ with the mayor, as chair of the committee, being elected ‘municipality wide.’
For me, and I stress for me© (I have to say that for Terence), not a Dream Team Thursday, Silvanus was on Toughie duty yesterday and it is Kcit’s turn today. But, there is no doubt that this is the very entertaining work of the Master of Brevity. The usual one word clues and answers in the Quickie, and an appearance from the Queen, no sign of Ray T’s swEetheart, but there is a plain sweetheart in the back pager. Nothing to excite the latent third formers among us. Also, like Dada, Ray T still seems to be making occasional use of a personal thesaurus. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!
Toughie 3770
Toughie No 3770 by Silvanus
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Unusually for both a Wednesday and a Silvanus crossword, I found this to be a proper Toughie – my favourite Across clue was 28a and my favourite Down clue was 8d, as both of them mde me smile
DT 31364
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31364
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. For me, today’s puzzle was fairly gentle for a Wednesday – about the same level of difficulty as yesterday’s and Monday’s crosswords. One of the answers was a word I hadn’t come across before, but was fairly clued.
Amongst my favourite clues were 9a, 29a and 23d, but tying for first place are 22a (a lovely word) and 28a, which brought the biggest laugh of the day. Many thanks to our setter.
Toughie 3769
Toughie No 3769 by Beam
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Whybird is abroad on work-related matters this week so I’m standing in for him.
Continue reading “Toughie 3769”
DT 31363
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31363
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ***
A slightly dreary start to the day here in Harpenden but the rain isn’t due to arrive until later this evening so may take advantage of the fact that my new golf course is on the doorstep & play a few holes this afternoon.
After last week’s considerably trickier than usual Tuesday offering this one is an unmistakably gentle Anthony Plumb production that I felt was on a par with Heron’s puzzle yesterday in terms of difficulty. Though I enjoyed the solve & there were some neat surfaces it perhaps wasn’t the Prof at his sparkling best in my view so it’ll be interesting to see what others make of it.
Gazza is subbing for Whybird over in t’other place where Ray T is on duty with a fairly gentle & very enjoyable Beamer that is well worth a look at.
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 31362
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31362
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa, where there is no doubt that fall has arrived and the autumn leaves can be seen in their full splendour. In Canada, we interchangeably use the terms fall (a term that apparently was once in use in the UK and brought to North America by early British settlers) and autumn (seemingly a word of French origin that appears to have totally supplanted the word fall in the UK to the point that Brits think fall is an Americanism).
Fortunately, today’s challenge was not too difficult as I was labouring to complete it while distracted by other matters. I suspect it may be the work of Heron; I should know in the morning (it’s still Sunday evening in Ottawa as I write this) as she usually claims ownership of her puzzles on Bluesky.
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.