Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26140
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A gentle start to the week. With 1a, one plunges into the crossword.
At one stage I had these to go: 15a, 18a, 19a; 4d, 7d, 15d, 20d, 23d.
The very last were 4d, 7d, 23d.
To see the answers enclosed by curly brackets, please drag your mouse over the white space.
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.
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13.06041680.249634
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2519 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Once again one of the best puzzles of the week. Although this particular grid has four three-letter words, Virgilius has taken great trouble to provide clues that are a bit different.
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.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 22nd January.
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52.254523-2.266838
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26139 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
One of the better Saturday Prize puzzles, but with a handful of difficult answers. No pangram this week (for a change).
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.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 21st January.
Continue reading “DT 26139 – Hints”
52.254523-2.266838
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2518
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
A very straightforward puzzle for me, but I won’t grumble this week – there’s plenty of room for puzzles with well-written clues that aren’t fiendishly difficult.
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Toughie No 286 by Messinae
No complaints. Well… Just one.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I’ll put my hands up and admit it – I have occasionally joined in with comments about the Toughie not being the hardest crossword to emanate from Wapping. This was definitely on the easy side, but I was grateful. Having just watched my daughter in panto and returned to catch up on the snooker, accompanied by a bottle of Italian red, it was a late night and I doubt my brain would have been up to a much stiffer challenge.
This one has good, sound clueing throughout, albeit with no fireworks, marred very slightly by what appears to be an error at 5d.
As ever my favourites are shown in blue but, apart from 5d, everything warranted a generous nod to the setter – the clues are concise, accurate and, almost without exception, very smooth.
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.
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53.408488-2.149293
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26138
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I hope that you enjoyed today’s treat from Giovanni as much as I did. Do, please, give us a comment with your brickbats, bouquets, gripes or queries.
For new readers (and, based on the viewing figures we must be getting some every day) the answer to each clue is hidden inside the curly brackets under it. Drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets if you want to reveal it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26133
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
This was harder than the usual Saturday puzzle, but after a break last week we have another pangram (see below).
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52.254523-2.266838
Toughie No 285 by Busman
Can you tell your Arias from your Elbows?
(thanks to Prolixic for the subheading)
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This puzzle was only slightly spoiled by the serious error at 13 across – checking letters and the wordplay mean that the Verdi red herring shouldn’t hold you up for long. Busman’s previous Toughies have tended towards the easy side, this one is more difficult without being impenetrable.
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52.254523-2.266838
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26137
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Well its Thursday again, and after I had finished this, I thought I would be be repeating my views of last week. But after I had written the blog I thought it was not as bad as I originally thought. Mind you that doesn’t make it particularly good. One problem I had was the lack of variety, how many rats, steamships, first letters, last letters etc. did you find? Ho hum.
As usual please leave a comment if you feel that you want to contribute to the discussion about todays crossword.
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Toughie No 284 by Micawber
Tempus Fugit
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
If a decree were to be issued from the Telegraph command bunker, saying that in future all Toughies would be compiled by a single one of the current setters, then I would opt for Micawber. He produces challenging puzzles with excellent cluing, he doesn’t need to resort to lots of obscure words, but most of all, he consistently makes me laugh. I enjoyed solving this one so much that I was sorry when I, eventually, finished – but I was cheered by the prospect of having to go through all the clues again to write the review.
Please leave a comment to let us know what you thought of it!
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