Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25935
Hints and tips by Libellule
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Another relatively tricky Friday crossword. With a mixed bag of clues, some good some bad.
•
Category: DT Cryptic Crosswords
Hints and tips for completing the regular Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
DT 25930 – Review
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25930 – Review
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Another mixed bag of a Saturday puzzle for me. The grid is rather perverse. Combining 14-letter answers with the two 15-letter acrosses is a nice idea, but done a bit hamfistedly, making double unches (start of 7D, end of 17D), and although the 3 of 7 checking letters in these answers were uncommon enough to make these answers pretty clear, the double unches are not impressive. We also get four 5-letter answers with 2 letters checked, though again the checking letters for them are relatively helpful. The clues are generally good – I seem to be grumbling less than usual below – though the last one was disappointing.
DT 25934
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25934
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This is a good, solid puzzle with some nice surface readings. I always think that if you are amused by the first clue across, which was the case for me here, then you are pre-disposed to like the whole puzzle.
‘
DT 25933
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25933
Hints and tips by Big Dave
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *
DT 25932
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25932
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Once more we have an excellent Tuesday puzzle with some very entertaining surface readings. The layout of the grid encourages you to solve one corner at a time, and I was proceeding quite well until I reached the South-East corner which held me up for a while.
Can I point out to new readers (and to regular readers who have not yet read Big Dave’s FAQ!) that the curly brackets associated with each clue are not just there for artistic embellishment – the answer is hidden inside them, and if my hints are insufficient to give you the answer you can reveal it by selecting the space inside the brackets.
DT 25931
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25931
Hints and tips by Tilsit
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
One weak one this time round, with a couple of surplus articles, but nothing major to write home about.
.
.
.
.
Continue reading “DT 25931”
DT 25929
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25929
Hints and tips by Libellule
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
A tricky crossword today, but with some very good clues.
DT 25924 – Review
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25924
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Given a 4-star difficulty rating mainly bcause it took me a long time to be sure of 9A, so the total time was about double my average for this puzzle. One of those rather odd grids that’s perfectly OK apart from the over-unched 5-letter words, but includes a whopping 16 7-letter answers, and only three other word-lengths. It’s easy to see changes that would both increase the variety of answer lengths and fix the under-unching.
DT 25928
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25928
Hints and tips by Gazza
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Nothing too obscure or contentious today – what we have is a straightforward puzzle which should not frustrate regular solvers for very long, but which contains some entertaining clues.
DT 25927
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25927
Hints and tips by Big Dave
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This is the sort of puzzle that you come to expect in the Telegraph. Nothing too difficult, no awkward constructs, no obsolete or obscure words, no silly phrases, no proper nouns, no isolated corners, and certainly no sign of those love ’em or hate ’em unches! Just a good, honest puzzle. Well done our Wednesday setter.