Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
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We welcome Alchemi on board with a cracking debut puzzle full of inventive clues and a cracking anagram at 3/9d. Many thanks to him for the crossword and to Jetdoc for recommending him. Hopefully it will not be too long before he appears here again.
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Welcome to the latest in our series of weekly puzzles.
This week we have a new setter. Alchemi was recommended by Jetdoc (Mrs Elgar) so you know it is going to be an excellent puzzle.
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Many thanks to Phil McNeill for providing today’s puzzle, which can be downloaded from the previous post.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, and provide hints for them.
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A big thank you to Phil McNeill, the Telegraph’s Puzzles Editor, for kindly providing pdfs for today’s cryptic, quick and GK puzzles.
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
Greetings from the Calder Valley. When I found out last night that I was getting Micawber today, I was filled with joy as he is one of my favourite setters and rarely fails to disappoint. However, it took me exactly 9 hours and 13 minutes to get into the Telegraph website to get a copy, including a stint at 4 am trying to get it. Come on Telegraph techies, something has got to be done, it just isn’t good enough.
Rant over. This is a simply splendid puzzle that was more than worth the wait. Lots of laugh aloud moments and the odd forehead slap as well. As I have said before, with setters like Micawber, Dada and Elgar around, the future for crosswords is bright. So many brilliant clues today, it seems a shame to pick the best. Looking at the completed grid, there are odd words here and there and I did wonder if we had a Nina, but it seems not.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The usual Virgilius excellence again this Sunday. The standout clue for me was the &Lit at 8d.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The on-line site, far from improving, seems to be getting worse and worse. I dread to think how much time has been wasted in futile attempts to access the puzzles.
This very entertaining puzzle from Giovanni is on a par for difficulty with Wednesday’s Toughie. Let us know how you fared with it.
Good luck to Wales tomorrow morning!
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BD Rating –Difficulty * – Enjoyment **/***
Our Saturday Mysteron provided us with another straightforward but enjoyable start to Saturday morning. However did it contain, as Prolixic pointed out, a hidden message commenting on the problems with the Telegraph Puzzles site? Have a look at the solutions to 26a, 5d and 3d and see what you think.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
When I started I thought this was going provide a struggle. In fact I found it very straightforward but, just in case I was having a good morning and was on the setter’s wavelength, I have left the difficulty rating at 3* after toying with 2*
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Another excellent puzzle from Ray T that took more time to download from the online site than it did to solve – but the download time was dwarfed by the length of time that it took to submit. We have been promised that by next week all will be resolved – but don’t hold your breath!