Toughie No 3741 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings and welcome to another Toughie Week! Many thanks to Gazza and ALP for filing in whist I was off on my Jollies – Audouin’s gull, Cory’s, Scopoli’s, Balearic and Manx shearwaters, crested tit, spotless starling, black redstart, long-finned pilot whale, common dolphin, loggerhead turtle, and a (probably Fin) whale were the wildlife highlights, plus 70-odd seconds of total eclipse, so I’m pretty happy with that haul!
Dada had given us a stiff test today, certainly meriting its Toughie label. There are some very clever and inventive clues but I didn’t warm to it as much as I was expecting, although I can’t really work out why. 16a and 26a get honourable mentions, but I’m giving my top prize today to 18a. Thanks to Dada for robustly knocking away the post-holiday cobwebs.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Sunday Toughie No 238
by Beam
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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Beam with his 24th and 25th Sunday Toughie, has sandwiched Hudson’s first. Lots of Beam trademarks, including no anagrams, so I hope you find the checkers to finish today
A generous 16a and 16d clues, and I have hinted at half. I will try and nudge if any tricky clues haven’t survived the cutting room
Here we go, Folks…
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Toughie No 3740 by Luxor
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Thanks to Luxor for an enjoyable and quite tricky Toughie where my progress was steady rather than meteoric.
Please leave a comment telling us how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Toughie No 3739 by Kcit
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
What a difference a day makes, eh? I raced through this. It’s all pretty fair and there’s no exotic vocab as such – I even vaguely remembered 26a. Moreover, the pangram was helpful. Now, I am not a horsey chap and this may well be fanciful overreach, but 1a and then 25d got me thinking. The latter (Sir Henry) trained 13a; and 12a, 20a, 8d & 9d were all racehorses. There may be others but my Google thumb was getting tired. Certainly, if there isn’t/wasn’t one called 11a (though presumably not 25a) I’m Kylie Minogue. But perhaps the heat has just further addled my brain. The floor is, as ever, yours to put me right …
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Toughie No 3738 by Donnybrook
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
I thought this was a properly tough Toughie, for both a Wednesday and a Donnybrook
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Sunday Toughie No 236 by Beam
Full Review by Gazza
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This puzzle was published on 02/08/26
Across Clues
1a Friendly, therefore guy protects single (8)
SOCIABLE: an adverb meaning therefore and the sort of guy used to hold up a tent contain the Roman single. Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 236 (full review)”
Toughie No 3737 by Shabbo
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment *****
It’s always a joy to see Shabbo’s name pop up. He’s clearly got the expected Tuesday non-difficulty level down pat, generously going out of his way to give us a toehold or ten (6d, etc). Ever so gentle, sure, but smoothly entertaining. If you like anagrams, you’re going to love it! The floor, as ever, is yours. PS … dinna fret – Whybird’s back next week!
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Sunday Toughie No 237
by Hudson
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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It is always a delight when a new Sunday Toughie setter appears, especially so when it is from Hudson who has 83 normal toughies and many more anonymous backpagers to his name.
That this was a pangram certainly helped with 7d, I bunged the missing letters in and parsed this later.
We have 15a and 15d clues today and I have hinted half. I hope you find the checkers to cross the line, but will try and give a nudge if asked.
Here we go, Folks…
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Toughie No 3736 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
If I hadn’t struggled so mightily to parse two of the clues, I might have said that I really enjoyed this proper Friday Toughie but I still can’t parse one of them (and none of the three crossword-solving ‘friends I phoned’ could help until I got an email just after the blog was published. I spotted the theme quite early on in the solving process – apparently it is the centenary of Britain’s first Grand Prix [the names of eleven British Formula One champions are to be found in the Across solutions, some of them crossing over two solutions, one name doing double duty for father and son with that surname]
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Toughie No 3735 by Django
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Solid stuff from Django today, with his usual flourishes. 1a tickled me from the off. I once filed a piece for The Independent about Britain’s “poshest” dump. There were working tumble-dryers discarded there willy-nilly – one still in its box, quickly snapped up by the hawk-eyed manager. There was even an on-site shop to sell the best of the plunder that included a W-reg Ford Fiesta (with MOT) and a speedboat. That’s Dorset for you!
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