Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2607
A full review by Gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Afternoon All!. Last week Crypticsue was bemoaning the fact that I seem to get the themed Virgilius puzzles. Despite the tantalising “HIDDEN SKETCH” running along the bottom I have been unable to find four Yorkshiremen, any dead parrots nor even a scrap of cheese. I hope I haven’t missed something whilst just presenting a review of another excellent puzzle from Brian Greer.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26671
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I thought this was a bit trickier crossword than usual from Giovanni (not that it spoilt my enjoyment) and would be interested in opinions. As is usual on a blogging day it seemed to take ages to get access to the Telegraph Puzzles site to both to print a copy and then check the answers. Bah humbug!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26666
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This week Cephas presented us with one of those seems-tricky-while-solving/took-the-same-time-as usual puzzles , but that’s one of the joys of cryptic solving, one never knows how each puzzle will work out. Thanks to Cephas once again.
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Toughie No 641 by Elkamere
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I did this puzzle in no time at all. Well, that’s according to the kitchen clock that I was using to time myself. It wasn’t until I’d finished the puzzle that I noticed that the clock had stopped and so my time was zero. Actually it felt as if it took longer than average and it certainly took me some time to get started on the southwest corner once everything else had been done. So I’ve given it 4 stars for difficulty though I suspect others will rate it as 3 stars. It was an enjoyable puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26670
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
A very enjoyable puzzle from one of this week’s mystery setters (but I have a suspicion as to who it might be!). My only grumble is that 1 across may be a bit too difficult for some.
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Toughie No 640 by Kcit
As Tough as Falling Off a Log
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from all the reviews I’ve written here it’s that if I stray from a middle-of-the-road view on the difficulty of a puzzle I’ll get flack. If I describe it as “pretty tough” someone is bound to comment that they did it whilst listening to the Greenwich time signal; if I label it as particularly easy we’ll get tearful comments from people who have sweated all day over it. So, taking my courage in both hands, I am emboldened to say that this is the easiest Toughie I can remember – when I was solving it I had to look at the top of the page to reassure myself that I’d printed off the right puzzle. There’s nothing wrong with the puzzle itself – in fact I enjoyed it and it would have made a good back-page cryptic, but it doesn’t cut the mustard as a Toughie.
Let us know what you thought of it and please take the time to click on one of the stars below to indicate your enjoyment factor.
PS Another complaint – there’s not much scope for pictures. 
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26669
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Well, I’ve easily broken my all-time speed record for a DT cryptic on this one! But, as I said last week, they don’t have to be hard to be fun and I really enjoyed solving this one. What do you think? Was I just on the right wavelength today or are Jay’s recent puzzles getting a bit easier?
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Toughie No 639 by Beam
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Beam, aka Ray T, is one of the setters whose puzzles I always look forward to solving. This one was about the same difficulty as some of his back-page puzzles, but enjoyable nonetheless.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26668
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
One of the Tuesday Mysterons has given us a very enjoyable puzzle (with a tasty pun in the Quickie) this morning. Let us know how you fared in a comment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26667
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Libellule is ensnared in work-related problems this morning so I’m blogging this one and he’ll be doing the Friday shift.
This is a typical Rufus puzzle, full of clever cryptic definitions but not too much of a stretch. Let us know what you made of it.
If you want to see an answer just highlight the space between the curly brackets under the clue.
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