Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25979
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from the Calder Valley. Quite a challenging and enjoyable puzzle from our Monday Maestro today. Not as easy as the past few weeks with a few clues to cause more than a little head scratching. Lots of good surface reading and a preponderance of double definition clues today.
The topic for debate today concerns the clue at 28 across. I often feel that crosswords are stuck in a sort of time warp of the late fifties/early sixties. Some setters try to write clues that reflect modern usage (and abusage) of phrases, but a few, and this runs from today’s setter through to the Araucarias of this world) sometimes use words or devices that are strictly of a period.
If you asked a younger person what a “cosh” was, would they know? To me, it’s a word that belongs with The Great Train Robbers and 1950’s Teddy Boys. I also accept that I may be wrong, and I’d like your thoughts. I don’t think the day is far off where the newer abbreviations, such as LOL and IMHO will start appearing as indicators as part of clues. What do you think? Let me know at the end. Newer posters please remember that your first posts has to be approved, to prevent spamming, but you’ll be on the board fairly quickly.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25977
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Not too difficult, but not too easy either. A nice mixture of clues varying in complexity. A good crossword for polishing your skills and typical for a Friday.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25972 – Review
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Peter Biddlecombe is taking a well-deserved break this week, but will be back next week.
Saturday puzzles recently have not deserved the accolade of prize puzzles, but this one was a lot better. I had a few minor grumbles,which are outlined in the review.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25976
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
When I solved this puzzle I was not overly impressed with it, but writing the review has made me appreciate some of the individual clues more, and I ended up quite liking it.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space to reveal them.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25975
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
I found this to be a disapppointing puzzle. There was little of merit, and the overuse of initial and final letter constructs that failed to contribute to the surface reading was irritating.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25974
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
An enjoyable, but not too taxing, puzzle with all the answers being single words. We have both a girl’s name and a city, so there may be some criticism from those who do not like the use of proper nouns – over to you!
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space inside them to reveal all.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25973
The Yawning After the Night Before
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Dateline: Hebden Bridge : Monday : 00:45
After a very pleasant birthday Sunday, I arrived home just after midnight full of bonhomie (sadly not alcohol) and at one with the world. So I logged on to Clued Up and, armed with a cup of coffee and Tracy Chapman on my speakers, set about the new challenge from our Monday Maestro.
ARVE Error: need id and provider
Some minutes later I am waiting for Clued Up to decide whether I have completed the puzzle, although I am fairly certain I have it correct. Has my good humour survived? Let’s take a stroll round Across Street and Down Lane and see.
I have vented my spleen about the Telegraph Grids recently, so I shall say little about today’s abomination. There’s the usual smattering of cryptic definitions, and the usual odd one that stetches a point. I am sure I have seen the exact same clue at 5 down in a puzzle recently, so that is where I start.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25971
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Not sure about this crossword, maybe I got out of the wrong side of bed this morning, but I personally felt that this was somewhat 16a. and is only rescued by 18a. Comments appreciated as always.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25966 – Review
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
A pretty easy puzzle, which will have disappointed those who want a bit more to chew over on a Saturday. In its favour, the surface readings are nearly all convincing. The grid seems to be a direct match of a Times one, dreamt up by their former xwd editor Edmund Akenhead, with a big black E as a “signature”. It’s now a bit eccentric at the Times – their only grid with any fully checked answers – but much better than some of the DT ones.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25970
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Nothing too taxing today, but a pleasant challenge with a lot of nice surface readings.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space to reveal them.
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