Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
Sunday Toughie No 205
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Not the trickiest Beam today, with a generous 16a and 16d clues today, and I have hinted half. I hope you find the checkers to finish. I will try and give an extra nudge if you are struggling.
Cold cuts and the cheeseboard for lunch today. I hope you are not snowed under by leftovers.
Here we go, Folks…
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Having consulted our friend Gemini I was offered several candidate sets to consider: days of the week / months of the year, the seven dwarfs or seven deadly sins, noble gases or chemical elements, musical notes (do, re, mi…), planets in the solar system, greek alphabet letters.… Continue reading
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg for my last Sunday blog of the year.
For me, and I stress for me,© Dada not as friendly as he has been recently apparently ignoring the fact that we are in the season of goodwill etc, with, unless I miscounted, six anagrams (two partials), no lurkers, and no homophones in a symmetric 32 clues; with 16 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid you should/might be able to get some of the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
If it is some time since you read, or if you have never read the instructions in RED below the hints then please consider doing so before commenting today as my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
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Toughie No 3608 by Elgar
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
I hope all our readers had an enjoyable day yesterday and are now enjoying their cold turkey.… Continue reading
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BD Rating - Difficulty *** - Enjoyment ***
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the final Friday puzzle of 2025. I struggled to get on wavelength today, likely the result of trying to hint alter an indulgent Christmas Day. Continue reading "DT 31120"
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment *****
A zinger from Django today – a real treat. I must thank the Telegraph’s top brass and one of our very own top brass – Gazza – for gifting me a copy to blog in advance. It has – just about – kept me out of the doghouse. I did make the mistake of giving a woman (i.e. my mother-in-law) summat with a plug on – a sin that my urbane godfather told me years ago never to commit. In my defence, I remain convinced she’ll learn to love it! Merry Christmas everyone.
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31119
Hints and tips by Shabbo
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning, fellow puzzlers and a very happy and peaceful Christmas to you all.
Silvanus claimed ownership of today’s puzzle in last Friday’s comments. I found it suitably seasonal, not too challenging and great fun to solve. Perhaps he is being gentle with us, knowing that many of us will not have much spare time to sneak in a quick solve without getting told off by senior management.
I have added plenty of images to enjoy, as it is Christmas, but I hope that these do not give the answers away too much. If they do, please accept my apologies.
My ticks are for Prokofiev’s piece at 5a, the neat anagram at 15a, the rings at 1d, the setter getting fired at 6d and the seat that Starmer lost at 20d. Which did you like?
Many thanks to Silvanus and to the DT Crossword Team.
