Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing the regular Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
If yesterday’s puzzle required a frantic trawl through a medical ward, then today’s offers a period of convalescence with a gentle stroll through some fairly straightforward clues with no obscure words in sight.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Fasten your seat belts! This puzzle takes us on a virtual world tour – we visit two English towns, two French towns, an American university, regions in the Middle East and Italy, and an African country.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A reasonably straightforward start to the week from our regular Monday setter. Lots of cryptic definitions and anagrams to give you a good start in completing it. My only grumble is with the grid itself; 18 answers each contain a double unchecked letter and if the cluing hadn’t been so solver- friendly, I could imagine I would have had trouble. 14 had me looking for something less obvious than it actually was, but generally a nice friendly puzzle after a weekend of solving some really tough beasts. Thanks to Big Dave for a nudge with 9 across. And now back to writing almost 200 questions for our local quiz league Individual Mastermind Championship.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
An enjoyable amble through this crossword this morning. It didn’t present too many problems, and I particularly enjoyed some clever cryptic double definitions.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This puzzle was memorable for the number of cryptic definitions. I like some of them and had reservations about others. The grid is good this week – six different word-lengths, no isolated corners, and 50%+ checking throughout. Other grid designers might have put the 11-letter words on the same row as a 3-letter word, but as Telegraph puzzles seem to have more three-letter words than some others, a puzzle with none of them is fine!
This was probably the easiest of the Saturday puzzles I’ve covered so far – there was no “nasty corner” to delay a solution when everything else was finished.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I found this one slightly trickier than those of recent days and it was slow-going to start with, but I was able to proceed steadily once I had got the long clues, and I learnt a new word on the way. Several of the clues appear at first sight to be more complicated than they actually are, and the whole thing is enjoyable.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This puzzle was a pleasure to tackle with its large number of cleverly-worded clues.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
