Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
It’s two weeks since we had a Ray T puzzle and we get a good one today with a few of his “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” clues. Let us know how you like it in a comment.
As always, if you still need to see an answer after reading the hint you’ll find it hidden between the brackets under the clue – just highlight the space between the brackets to reveal it.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another gentle Rufus style crossword to start the week. Not too difficult, but as usual it has some excellent clues with 7d and 26d being particular favourites.
If you need to see the answer just highlight the space in the curly brackets.
This is a first-rate puzzle from Radler which really exercised the little grey cells. The theme, as indicated by the title and by 21a, is solvers, i.e. fictional detectives, and Radler has managed to include no less than fifteen in the puzzle (one of whom I hadn’t heard of, although I am a fan of crime fiction).
The wordplay in a few places is quite tricky (worthy of an end-of-the-week Toughie) – I think that I’ve sorted out most of it, but I’m sure that Radler will point out any omissions or errors.
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It may have been me, but I found this a little more difficult than usual! Perhaps it was because I was watching the Hungarian Grand Prix at the same time.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 6th August.
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Welcome to the twenty fifth in our series of weekly puzzles.
This week we have another themed puzzle from Radler. Work out who the solvers are and the puzzle becomes a lot easier!
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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, 5th August.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Calderdale Hospital once more, my second home. I was rushed here yesterday following advice from NHS Direct the previous evening that nothing was wrong and to take two Paracetamol and go to bed.
I logged in at midnight to tackle today’s challenge and found it quite stern and well up to the usual Osmosis standard. Luckily I finished his recent Independent challenge only the other day and was able to lock in to the tight standard of cluemanship with beautifully concealed definitions. I still found it a good workout.
As usual the answers are concealed between the squiggly brackets and you can highlight them with your mouse if you get stuck. Feel free to comment after the blog and of course you can rate the puzzle with the star system. Clues I really liked are highlighted in blue.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Apologies for the slow report – it’s been a busy week. This was a fairly easy puzzle, with clues of the usual high standard.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We have a fairly straightforward challenge from Giovanni today (what I would call a bread-and-butter puzzle rather than a firecracker). Let us know what you thought in a comment.
As always the answers are concealed between the brackets under the clues – highlight the space between the brackets to make one visible.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Big Dave reckoned that this would be a gentle solve and so it proved. It was a pleasant enough puzzle but far from Toughie standard. There were some answers (10 Ac, 1 Dn, 3 Dn) where I was not familiar with the meanings used, but they were obvious enough from the wordplay.
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.