Toughie No 178 by Messinae
Just Like That? Not a Lot!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *** – (CluedUp Site Difficulty **************)
Very irritating today. Not the puzzle, but the blooming CluedUp website. I logged in to do the puzzle and finished it, and was chugging along writing the blog. Funnily enough at the time I thought that it didn’t feel like a Messinae puzzle. Visited this lovely site and then saw Gazza’s blog on the same puzzle! Checked in to Clued-Up again and got a different puzzle!
So we start again, a bit late! This was a really nice puzzle to solve (unlike his current fiendish Listener puzzle, which is a s*d!) and contains one of the best clues I have seen in a while. However I think there’s a problem with one of the other clues.
Off we go, let me have your thoughts below.
Continue reading “Toughie 178”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25976
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
When I solved this puzzle I was not overly impressed with it, but writing the review has made me appreciate some of the individual clues more, and I ended up quite liking it.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space to reveal them.
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Toughie No 177 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Once again we have a challenging Toughie from Osmosis with some pretty complicated wordplay. With some of the clues I felt like I’d taken a piece of equipment apart and put it back together, only to find that I’d got a bit left over! An extraordinary number of the clues involve a reversal of some or all of the letters. I really enjoyed battling with this one.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25975
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
I found this to be a disapppointing puzzle. There was little of merit, and the overuse of initial and final letter constructs that failed to contribute to the surface reading was irritating.
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Toughie No 176 by Citrus
Easier than the regular cryptic?
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Tuesday seems to be a good day to tackle your first Toughie. I sailed through this one, but enjoyed doing it.
Continue reading “Toughie 176”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25974
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
An enjoyable, but not too taxing, puzzle with all the answers being single words. We have both a girl’s name and a city, so there may be some criticism from those who do not like the use of proper nouns – over to you!
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space inside them to reveal all.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25973
The Yawning After the Night Before
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Dateline: Hebden Bridge : Monday : 00:45
After a very pleasant birthday Sunday, I arrived home just after midnight full of bonhomie (sadly not alcohol) and at one with the world. So I logged on to Clued Up and, armed with a cup of coffee and Tracy Chapman on my speakers, set about the new challenge from our Monday Maestro.
ARVE Error: need id and provider
Some minutes later I am waiting for Clued Up to decide whether I have completed the puzzle, although I am fairly certain I have it correct. Has my good humour survived? Let’s take a stroll round Across Street and Down Lane and see.
I have vented my spleen about the Telegraph Grids recently, so I shall say little about today’s abomination. There’s the usual smattering of cryptic definitions, and the usual odd one that stetches a point. I am sure I have seen the exact same clue at 5 down in a puzzle recently, so that is where I start.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2491 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Last week I asked for more of the same, and Jed has done just that. I found it a little easier than last weeks puzzle, but just as enjoyable.
A full analysis of this puzzle will be available at 12.00 next Friday, 10th July. Continue reading “ST 2491 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25972 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
First I’d like to say a special thank you to Gazza for stepping in to help me out yesterday. It all started when I switched the computer on yesterday morning, only to find that the graphics card had given up the ghost. I did eventually manage to find a very old one, but that card didn’t know what a wide screen looked like. Off to PC World where I had to buy a new motherboard, cpu, and memory to accommodate the new graphics card. At this point the hard drive crashed for the third time in as many months, so it was back again for a new drive. By the time that I had reloaded Windows and found out that the new graphics card was faulty it was nearly midnight. Fortunately I was able to use the onboard graphics controller, so I’m able to do this morning’s blog.
A much better puzzle this week from our Saturday Supremo. There is a village, but it has an indelible place in British history.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. Peter Biddlecombe is on holiday this week, but a full review of this puzzle will still be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 9th July.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2490 – Review
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
There have been a lot of good Sunday puzzles recently, and this was another. Sorry for the late appearance of this review, but I’m still sorting out Friday morning’s computer crash.
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