Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26633
Hints and tips by pommers
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from the Vega Baja. Once more we have a Wednesday puzzle that’s not too difficult but with 2 or 3 clues to keep you on your toes! Possibly a bit heavy on clues involving anagrams (not my favourites as you probably know by now). Somehow I thought this was a bit ‘flat’ for a Jay puzzle but maybe that’s just me! As for star ratings – I’ve given 2* based on my personal solving time. If you post a comment please leave your own star rating and at about 1700BST I’ll average the lot and see what you guys think of it compared to me.
Continue reading “DT 26633”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26627
Hints and tips by Falcon
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Today we have the usual enjoyable offering from Jay – one that I thought tended toward the less difficult end of the scale.
Continue reading “DT 26627”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26621
Hints and tips by pommers
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hello from the Vega Baja on another beautiful morning!
Crosswords are always easier when solved in the morning over a cup of tea and piece of toast but this one must be a strong candidate for being the gentlest Wednesday puzzle since I started blogging, solved in less than half the time of last week’s! As is usual with a Jay puzzle there are 2 or 3 tricky clues to keep us on our toes and it’s not overloaded with anagrams, although there are enough to keep the anagram fans happy I think. Continue reading “DT 26621”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26615
Hints and tips by pommers
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Hello all, the man from the Vega Baja is back after a couple of weeks off while the ‘other job’ intervened. I do wish clients wouldn’t want to travel on Wednesdays – I missed Jay’s 500th because of them!
Maybe it’s just me being a bit thick in the early hours of this morning but I thought this was way above Jay’s normal difficulty level and it came as a bit of a surprise to me on a Wednesday! Only 2 across clues done on first pass but the downs yielded enough to get going. Jay seems to be making a trademark of making his across clues the hard ones!
However, once all the pennies had dropped I realised I had really quite relished the challenge so definitely 4* for enjoyment. You can all disagree with my difficulty rating if you like but, based on my solving time compared with normal, 4* is what it is! (I reserve 5* for if I have to email other bloggers for help, not had to do that yet but this one came close on one clue!). As I said, maybe it’s just me . . .
Continue reading “DT 26615”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26609
Congratulations!
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This is Jeremy Mutch’s 500th Telegraph Crossword.
It’s not often that a back-page setter is identified, but Jay, as we know him, is given a name check in today’s newspaper.
Pommers is busy preparing his apartment for a client who is arriving today, but will be back in the hot seat next week.
Once again Jay produces a not-too-difficult but nonetheless enjoyable puzzle.
Continue reading “DT 26609”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26603
Hints and tips by Falcon
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
It is a pleasant enough offering today from Jay which I was able to solve reasonably quickly. Given that a few British expressions presented hurdles for me that would be absent for those of you in the UK, I expect you did even better.
Big Dave attached a note to the puzzle saying “With gold mentioned, the downs are almost Goldilocks and the three bears! ” And, with hair being mentioned in the across clues (10a), perhaps the theme is complete.
Continue reading “DT 26603”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26597
Hints and tips by pommers
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Hello once again from the Vega Baja. We have a tricky little rascal today (to borrow pommette’s phrase) which has a theme, a bit unusual for a Wednesday puzzle so perhaps this one isn’t from Jay. I nearly gave it 4* for difficulty but then realised I’d spent a good portion of my solving time trying to fit a nine letter word into 24a before noticing the enumeration is (4,5) – D’oh!!!!! Continue reading “DT 26597”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26591
Hints and tips by pommers
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hello from the Vega Baja. A pleasant, and not too hard, offering this week from our Wednesday Wizard. I seem to have used quite a bit of blue highlighter on this one so I’ve given it 4* for enjoyment.
Continue reading “DT 26591”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26585
Hints and tips by Falcon
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We have been served up a very solid offering today by Jay. Personally, I found it to be a bit more difficult than his typical fare. Nevertheless, I solving it was a thoroughly enjoyable exercise – and I toyed with the idea of giving it another star in that category.
Continue reading “DT 26585”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26579
Hints and tips by Pommers
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola From the Vega Baja on a beautiful morning. Just right for solving outside in the courtyard before it gets too hot. As usual an excellent Wednesday puzzle. I toyed with giving it 4* for difficulty as there are a couple of obscure words but they’re both fairly clued so 3 it is! Be interested to hear your views.
Continue reading “DT 26579”