Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 027
A Puzzle by Prolixic
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Welcome to the twenty seventh in our series of weekly puzzles.
This week’s puzzle is from up-and-coming setter Prolixic.
Category: Crosswords
Hints and tips for completing Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
DT 26319 (Hints)
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26319 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 19th August.
Toughie 406
Toughie No 406
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Is Big Dave psychic or does he have inside information? Earlier in the week he asked me if I’d blog Friday’s toughie instead of my usual Thursday one and I agreed to. The result is that Big Dave got yesterday’s gentle puzzle and I ended up with today’s anything-but-gentle puzzle. Not that I mind. I enjoy a challenge and there are lots of very nice touches in this puzzle. There are a couple of clues that I haven’t fully understood and I look forward to fellow bloggers coming up with the explanations.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
ST 2548
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2548
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A bit harder than usual for me – this one took almost exactly my average time for a Times crossword. That’s not supposed to happen when there are 3 hidden word clues, but I did start rather badly …
DT 26318
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26318
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
There’s nothing too frightening in this Giovanni puzzle on Friday the 13th, and it has an enjoyable mixture of clues. We’d love to get a comment from you about it (especially if you’re a regular reader and haven’t yet introduced yourself).
The answers, should you need them, are hidden between the curly brackets under the clues. Just highlight the space between the brackets to reveal one. Continue reading “DT 26318”
Toughie 405
Toughie No 405 by Busman
Mon Goose is Cooked
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
The Toughie provides a range of styles and difficulty levels that cater for many tastes and solving abilities. With a Busman puzzle, you know you will get some very fair clues and usually a gentle introduction to the world of the Telegraph Toughie. Today is no exception. But for 10a and 28a, there is nothing here that would not be out of place in one of the more difficult back page cryptic crosswords.
DT 26313
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26313
A full review by Gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Afternoon All!. I solved this between a Bacon Sandwich and a round of Golf. When I got back to the ‘blog I saw a number of comments rating it as poor. Having just reviewed it for Thursday I still found it enjoyable (despite some quibbles) and not too hard, but certainly not poor.
Continue reading “DT 26313”
DT 26317
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26317
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I nearly wore out the blue highlighter today! Our mystery setter has compiled an excellent puzzle, without resorting to over-difficult clues. “Please, sir, can I have some more?” as someone once said.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
Toughie 404
Toughie No 404 by Petitjean
Read My Lips
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
I can’t say that I enjoyed this puzzle a great deal. You have to admire the ingenuity and some of the surface readings are really amusing, but 14 of the 30 clues involve anagrams (with some weird indicators), including two-thirds of the down clues. There’s one clue (7d/8d) where I can’t work out the wordplay, so I hope that someone will be able to explain that one.
Let us know what you thought of it in a comment and please don’t forget to click one of the stars below to show how much you enjoyed it.
DT 26316
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26316
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another excellent puzzle from the Telegraph’s Wednesday Wizard.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.