Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26573
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja where there are too many mossies! One has been feasting on my right ankle while I was doing today’s puzzle!
More Wednesday wizardry today from Jay(?). Did the midnight solve again but haven’t got the grumpy head on so it must be good, at least I enjoyed it a lot, hope you guys do as well. Couple of tricky ones, as usual, but overall not too difficult so only 2* difficulty from me. After 10 weeks blogging Jay’s puzzles I think I must be getting on the right wavelength. I’ll be interested in your thoughts.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26567
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I feel like a circus performer working without a safety net tonight. In the past, Big Dave has always forwarded a copy of the completed grid as a backup in case I am unable to solve a clue. However, tonight I guess he decided to take the training wheels off the bike, as I did not find a filled in grid in the package. Luckily, it was not needed.
I awarded this puzzle two stars for difficulty, given that I was able to solve it without the need of electronic assistance. I perhaps should clarify that statement – I found solutions to all the clues, but I remain perplexed by the wordplay at 4d. That mess I leave for Big Dave to clean up in the morning.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26561
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hello again from the Vega Baja where Summer has arrived in the last few days!
I really enjoyed solving this puzzle but, as usual, writing the hints was far harder than the solve! I’m beginning to think Jay (presumably) is doing this on purpose to make my life difficult! This is my 10th blog of a Wednesday puzzle and for the first time we have a pangram, which I didn’t spot until putting in my last answer! (Has the DT slipped in a Shamus puzzle I wonder?).
There are a few tricky clues in this so I’ve given it 3* for difficulty but at least there are also a few easier ones to give you a start.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26555
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello again from the Vega Baja. You’ll be pleased to know that I solved this one at a more sensible time of day than I did last week’s so it’s only getting 2* for difficulty!
The usual excellent stuff from Jay (presumably) with a nice mix of clue types and some unusual uses of common crossword terms. While I didn’t find the solving hard, writing hints for some of these was at least a 5* rating!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26549
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from the Vega Baja on a beautiful sunny morning. At least the weather here has resumed normal service over the last few days!
Maybe it’s just me but I think Jay has raised the bar a little on this one and based on my solving time I’ve had to give it 4* for difficulty. (I really must stop staying up late to solve the crossword. It doesn’t come online until 0100CEST and my brain isn’t really in gear at that time of the morning! )
A nice mix of clues with a couple of obscure words and phrases to get you thinking.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26543
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from a not so sunny Spain! Pommette and I may have taken the sun with us to the UK but we seem to have forgotten to bring it back!
After my rather grumpy blog a couple of weeks ago I’m pleased to say I thoroughly enjoyed this fine puzzle from Jay (presumably it is he) and recommend it to all. There are a few fairly easy clues to get you started and a few to make you scratch your head a bit – a nice mixture IMO. I took longer in the NE corner than the rest of the puzzle put together but looking back I’m not sure why that was. I’ll be interested to hear how you get on with it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26537
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I presume that this one is by Jay, but I have to say that I didn’t derive as much enjoyment from it as I normally expect from his creations. It certainly seems to have a fair share of charades, together with a goodly dose of deletion-type clues – but lacks any real “Aha!” moment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26531
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Buenas Dias from a gloriously sunny Cheshire, I seem to have brought the Spanish weather with me!
Maybe it’s just me having an off day, after spending 7 hours driving here from the far end of Cornwall yesterday afternoon, but I’m not at all sure that this is a Jay puzzle. I certainly found it a lot trickier than recent Wednesdays and it doesn’t seem to me to have the usual flair we’ve come to expect from Jay. I’ll be interested to see what you guys think of it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26525
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Pommers is flying to the UK today, so I am filling in for him. Another fine puzzle from Jay, which I enjoyed as much as ever.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26519
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from sunny Spain where Spring seems to have sprung in the last couple of weeks. Thankfully no panic this week, just the usual Wednesday wizardry (presumably from Jay) which I’m sure you will enjoy as much as I did. There’s a good mix of clues and the usual couple of tricky ones to keep us all on our toes.
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