Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2519 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Once again one of the best puzzles of the week. Although this particular grid has four three-letter words, Virgilius has taken great trouble to provide clues that are a bit different.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 22nd January.
Continue reading “ST 2519 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2518 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
First a bit of news. Alexa is the best-known site for ranking websites and today this blog’s rating dipped below 1,000,000 for the first time – 986,285 to be precise. What this means is that we are in the top million sites in the world! This is actually a 3-month average, the 7-day and 1-month figures are nearer to 500,000. Our UK rating, at 20,136, is even better. Please feel free to add your own review to Alexa – you can access their site by clicking the widget at the bottom of the sidebar.
Today we have another excellent puzzle from Virgilius, but don’t take my word for it – have a go yourself.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 15th January.
Continue reading “ST 2518 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2517 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Once again a well-constructed puzzle from Virgilius (the name by which Brian Greer is best known these days). Very few easy clues, but all the answers should be within the vocabulary of the average solver, with the possible exception of 20 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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 8th January.
Continue reading “ST 2517 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2516 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A pleasant post-Christmas puzzle to solve while eating the left-over turkey!
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Tuesday, 5th January 2010.
Continue reading “ST 2516 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2515 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *****
Four weeks ago Sunsetter hinted that there might be a themed puzzle appropriate to the time of year – well here it is! You are certain to spot the theme very quickly, but in order not to spoil it I have decided not to provide hints for the first and last across clues.
This is quite an easy puzzle, but the five stars for enjoyment reflect the number of clues that made me smile.
If Helen is reading this, I did try to write to you last week but my email was returned as undeliverable so I answered your question in the Hints post.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 25th December (or thereabouts!).
Continue reading “ST 2515 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2514 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Today the Morton-Foley Memorial Rugby Match will be played at the Upton Rugby Ground in Upton-upon-Severn between Upton Veterans and Severn Vale Barbarians. Kick-off is at 2.30pm and there will be a raffle with some excellent prizes, all of which have been kindly donated, including a boxing glove signed by Joe Calzaghe, items signed by Mark Foster, a signed and framed print celebrating Graham Hick’s 100 centuries, rugby shirts signed by the Saracens and Wasps teams and four tickets to any Worcester Rugby home game. There will also be a pig roast, just in case you get hungry. All proceeds go to St Richards Hospice, Worcester (see link in the sidebar). If you live nearby then please come along.
While today’s puzzle was a bit on the easy side, it still provided the same level of enjoyment as ever. Just as well, as I have a busy day 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 clues and provide hints for them.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 18th December.
Continue reading “ST 2514 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2513 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
This was harder than the average Sunday Prize puzzle but as enjoyable as ever. Some of the wordplay was a bit tricky, which tipped the difficulty from three to four stars in my book.
Sorry I’m a bit late today, but it took the whole of the morning to recover from yesterday’s session in London. There were too many people there to name all of them, but from a Telegraph perspective Elgar, MynoT and Notabilis were present and I was particularly pleased to meet, for the first time, Derek Harrison from The Crossword Centre – see the link in the sidebar.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 11th December.
Continue reading “ST 2513 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2512 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Being used to the style of our Sunday setter I found this to be quite easy – those less familiar may take longer, hence the dual difficulty rating. Either way, it is well worth the effort.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 4th December.
Continue reading “ST 2512 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2511 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
With puzzles as consistently good as these it’s difficult to say something different each Sunday, so I won’t try. Just enjoy!
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 27th November.
Continue reading “ST 2511 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2510 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
More excellent fare from Sunday’s Supremo. As I have said before, this puzzle is worth the price of the Sunday paper all on its own.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 19th November.
Continue reading “ST 2510 – Hints”