Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25999
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This enjoyable puzzle is only spoilt a little by the dodgy anagram indicators.
You can add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
For new viewers, the answers can be seen by selecting the space between the curly brackets – we do this so that you can look up one or two answers without seeing all of them. The first time you leave a comment it will need to be moderated before others can view it – this is to prevent the site being overrun by spammers; over 800 have been intercepted so far!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25998
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We can be pretty certain that there will be no discussion today about whether an answer should be hyphenated or not, since one of the trademarks of this setter is that all the answers are single words. Another trademark is that all the clues are beautifully constructed and often amusing. I was thoroughly entertained by it – what about you? Please take the time to click on one of the stars at the bottom of the review to vote for the entertainment factor.
As usual, the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space to reveal them.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25997
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
The sun beats down on the tropical Calder Valley (Griff Rhys Jones missed us out with his river tour and went across the Pennines via Huddersfield last night!) and here we go with another week of crossword challenges. As usual, the Monday Maestro gives us a nice gentle start to the week and I’m pleased that this week we have a more balanced set of clues after last week’s abundance of cryptic definitions. Today’s workout should give the newer solver a broader introduction into cryptic crossword clues, although the old hand may have seen a few of them before.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25995
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
A tougher crossword I think today than we have had for a number of weeks. But still very enjoyable. I do however have a small whinge about the definition for 8 down and 11 across. The answers are as usual are hidden between the curly brackets, just highlight the blank space. Comments as always appreciated.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25990 – Review
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A mostly easy puzzle, helped by straightforward clues to 15-letter answers. Only delay was in NW corner, where 11, 4, 2, 8 were the last few answers. A pretty good puzzle this – only a couple of weak CDs, and pretty solid surface meanings – only 13’s “axe a version” seemed really silly to me, and about half were as good as you could hope for – 8, 15 and 18 for example.
The charity bike ride which should have been happening on the day this appears has been postponed in the hope of getting two dry days in a row next week, riding on the second after the muddy sections of towpath have dried out on the first. Continue reading “DT 25990 – Review”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25994
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
There are a couple of strange anagram indicators in this puzzle. What’s your view on anagram indicators – do you think that virtually anything is acceptable, or should the indicator be a clear instruction to rearrange the letters of the adjacent word(s)? Let’s have a mass debate as Mrs Merton so graphically put it!
Please take the time to grade the enjoyment factor of the puzzle by selecting and clicking on one of the stars at the bottom of the review. As always your comments are most welcome.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25993
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This is turning out to be “New Solvers Week” as we are presented with another relatively easy puzzle. It’s on days like this that you get the full benefits of retirement – torrential rain and no need to go outside!
Two years ago this month I was returning home on a Friday evening and only got as far as Moreton-in-the-Marsh, where the High Street had turned into a river. I spent the night in a pub (things could have been a lot worse!) and finally managed to reach Hanley Swan on Saturday evening.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25992
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This is an ideal puzzle for someone starting out on cryptics, but probably not enough of a challenge for the experienced solver. Our experiment in letting everyone define the enjoyment factor is still running – please take the time to set the number of stars at the bottom of the review. Remember that you are grading the puzzle for enjoyment, not difficulty, so set the number of stars from 1 (hated it!) to 5 (the most enjoyment I’ve had all month!) or somewhere in between.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25991
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Quite an enjoyable start to the week with some very good cryptic definitions, which are the hallmarks of the Monday Maestro. However, there are a couple of not-so-good ones, which is a shame, otherwise this would have been a real quality puzzle.
As usual, your comments are appreciated.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25989
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Today’s seemed much harder than usual, for some reason I got stuck in the top right hand corner for what seemed like ages. A Composer, artist and public school also help to confuse the issue. But once again we have a nicely crafted crossword that is enjoyable to do and gives satisfaction on completion.
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