Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26632
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
What a lovely surprise! We have a superb puzzle today, a breath of fresh air chock-full of excellent and amusing clues. Even without the big hint at 20a I would have guessed that one of our newest Toughie setters has graduated to the back page. If the Telegraph Puzzles Editor is reading this, could I stress the need to keep this setter for Tuesdays.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26626
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment **
This is a pretty gentle puzzle for a Tuesday. My problem with it is not its relative ease, but that the compiler seems to have put all his/her effort into getting the wordplay right without paying too much attention to the surface readings. As a result the surface in a number of the clues is clunky or meaningless. Do you agree or disagree? – let us know in a comment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26620
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
There’s nothing too difficult in today’s puzzle but nothing that really stands out either. How did it grab you?
If you want to see an answer just highlight the space between the curly brackets under the relevant clue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26614
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Today’s puzzle from the Mysteron is quite pleasant but not too taxing. How did you find it?
To reveal an answer just highlight the space between the brackets under the clue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26608
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
It didn’t take long to write in the answers for this puzzle, but some of the wordplay is a bit trickier (and I needed the help of a fellow blogger to get to the bottom of one clue) so I quite enjoyed it. It seems to have a bit of a food theme. How did you get on?
If you want to see an answer highlight the space between the brackets under the relevant clue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26602
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
We were taken to task yesterday, in a comment from StevieG, for referring to some puzzles as fairly straightforward, because this might be discouraging to some solvers who don’t find them straightforward at all. However, if we’re writing a review we have to be able to say how difficult we found the puzzle relative to the average back-pager, and in my opinion this one is, well, fairly straightforward. It does have a few entertaining clues (but too many anagrams for my taste). Do feel free to agree or disagree.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26596
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Perhaps we’re going to get a “North American” week because, after yesterday’s Independence Day theme, today’s puzzle has a distinctly American flavour. It didn’t take me too long to solve and I wasn’t too impressed at first, but I did warm to it more when writing the review. What did you think?
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26590
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I made a complete dog’s breakfast of 1a at the start, but once I’d sorted that out this enjoyable puzzle by Shamus didn’t take overlong. How did you find it?
If you want to see an answer highlight the space between the brackets under the relevant clue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26584
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **/***
We have a puzzle with a bit of an American flavour from a mystery setter today. It didn’t really grab me when I was solving it, but I did like it a bit better when I was writing the blog. Let us know your views in a comment.
To reveal an answer just highlight the space between the brackets under the clue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26578
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We have an enjoyable puzzle from one of our mystery setters today, although I have a couple of quibbles. I found the bottom half more difficult than the top – let us know how you found it.
To reveal an answer drag your cursor through the space between the brackets under the clue.
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