Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26092 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *
Oh Dear! Just as I thought that I might be able to look forward to Saturday puzzles, along comes this one. If it wasn’t a prize puzzle then I would recommend consigning it to the recycling bin.
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, 26th November.
Continue reading “DT 26092 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26086 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This prize puzzle is even easier than usual, so there should be a lot of happy people today!
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, 19th November.
Continue reading “DT 26086 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26080 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Yesterday’s popular puzzle from Giovanni is followed today by one from Cephas that should prove to be just as enjoyable. A good cross-section of clues and only the one, well-known, place name. I await, with some interest, your comments.
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 12th November.
Continue reading “DT 26080 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26074 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Anax’s excellent article, titled “From the Top”, on how he put together a whole puzzle will be posted at 12.00 today. You will find this insight into the mind of an accomplished setter extremely interesting, all the more so if you solved the puzzle when it was posted last Saturday.
This puzzle gets three stars for enjoyment mainly because it is a lot better than last week’s Prize Crossword. A couple of iffy clues spoilt the overall effect, but it should please a lot of the Saturday regulars.
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 5th November (remember, remember!).
Continue reading “DT 26074 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26068 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *
Stop Press – 16.00 – the view count on the blog has just hit 500.000 (in just under 9 months!)
Today I have a special treat for you. Anax has written an excellent article on how he put together a whole puzzle and at 12.00 today you will have the opportunity to solve the puzzle. I will open up a blog post for discussion of the puzzle and then next Saturday you can read the whole article, titled “From the Top”. I’m sure that even if you don’t actually solve the puzzle you will find this insight into the mind of an accomplished setter extremely interesting.
I can think of nothing polite to say about today’s Prize puzzle, so I won’t bother.
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 29th October.
Continue reading “DT 26068 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26062 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
As Saturday Prize puzzles go, this one is about the same difficulty as you have come to expect. What is different is that there are none of those names – boys, girls, obscure places, they have all been given a rest this week. OK there is a name involved in the wordplay, but that’s all. I am not too happy with the anagram indicator, or rather the lack of an anagram indicator, in one clue but the rest of the puzzle is an excellent introduction to cryptic crosswords.
By the way, the only palindrome on view today is the number of the puzzle – a missed opportunity?
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 22nd October.
Continue reading “DT 26062 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26056 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment **
Tilsit is spending the weekend with me and we will be in Cheltenham on Saturday afternoon at the Kemble Brewery Inn and later at a nearby curry house. The following day we will be cheering (very quietly) for Peter Biddlecombe and John “Elgar” Henderson at the Times Crossword Championship. This all means that I will not be available from lunchtime today, but our very own double act of Gazza & Libellule will do their best to answer your queries and maintain law and order.
Latst update: Unfortunately Tilsit has had a bad fall – that alone would not have stopped him from coming but he broke his spectacles as well and can’t get a replacement pair until Monday at the earliest. I will at the pub from about 4.00 pm onwards.
Those of you that like your Saturday puzzles to be easy are going to be very happy today. This one is responsible for me having a very early night!
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 15th October.
Continue reading “DT 26056 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26050 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
After last week’s major surprise, today’s puzzle was bound to be an anticlimax for me. I found this one easy, even though I hated the grid.
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 8th October.
Continue reading “DT 26050 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26044 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Class
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment: *****
Yet another relatively easy Saturday prize puzzle, but this one is very different. I spotted a theme within the first few clues, but imagine my surprise when I realised the extent of that theme. Suffice it to say that four of the answers are to be found in the first sentence of the About page of this blog! How can I complain about the names and places in this puzzle when most of them relate to myself!
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 1st October.
Continue reading “DT 26044 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26038 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Class!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment: ***
Once again the Saturday prize puzzle just about creeps into 3-star difficulty. The handful of proper nouns are all well known and there is no need this week for an atlas. One minor quibble concerns the long down answer – this is a saying with which not everyone will be familiar, so the combination of a cryptic definition and two double unches (two consecutive squares without a checked letter) will make it a struggle for some.
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 24th September.
Continue reading “DT 26038 – Hints”