Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26110 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Tomorrow afternoon there will be a Charity Rugby match in Upton-upon-Severn. I’ll publish the full details tomorrow, but if you live nearby then please try to come along.
If you do the Saturday Prize puzzles on a regular basis then you will find little here today to surprise you. This is still the easiest crossword in any of the weekend quality papers. And don’t forget that this setter loves his pangrams (all 26 letters in the answers) and we have another 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, 17th December.
Continue reading “DT 26110 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26104 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
All being well I hope to be meeting up with other cruciverbalists in the White Horse on Parson’s Green, London this afternoon – feel free to drop in if you live nearby. I’m sure my fellow bloggers will look after you in my absence.
One of the better Saturday Prize puzzles today – I’ll gloss over the girl’s name at 1 down!
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, 12th November. 10th December.
Continue reading “DT 26104 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26098 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This week we have a much better puzzle to solve. OK, there’s a couple of places and a boy’s name, but they don’t detract from the overall enjoyment. The clues are all fair, with a few smiles along the way. Like several other Saturday puzzles, this one is pangrammatic – which means it contains all 26 letters of the alphabet – and this can help you solve those last few clues.
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, 12th November.
Continue reading “DT 26098 – Hints”
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”