Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Hints and tips for completing the regular Daily Telegraph Cryptic crosswords
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Today we have a very pleasant, but not too exacting, exercise with some well-constructed clues – perfect for doing in the garden with a long, cold drink close at hand.
As usual, the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – select the white space to reveal them.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
I made it home from the hospital, but haven’t felt much like solving over the weekend, so I have a large pile of puzzles to wade through. Whether it’s because I am out of sorts I can’t decide, but today’s puzzle irritated me more than pleased me. I hate grids that have only one way in and out of each corner and today’s was no exception. There does seem to be a large number of Telegraph grids that are not helpful to solvers, and it may be about time that a review was carried out of the grids. Similarly I hate ambiguous clues with a passion, and there’s one today at 25 across.
Overall, the clues are of the standard we expect from our Monday Maestro, but one or two are of the tooth-sucking variety, and I’ll mention those as we go along. Right, off we go….
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A smorgasbord of a crossword today, with historical, poetic, botanic and film references all in the mix. That, however does not detract from the crossword’s enjoyment. If you are new to the blog, to see the answer, just highlight the blank space between the curly brackets.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Much harder than most recent Saturday puzzles – something like double my average time for them. Mostly good grid, though it does have eight 7-letter words with only three checked letters. Some of my potential quibbles disappeared after looking up words in Chambers, so there are only a couple of clues I’d count as unfair. That said, there are some very easy cryptic definition clues to go with the difficult ones. Generally a better puzzle than most Saturdays as others said in the hints posting. My main reservation is the number of cryptic definitions which seem weak to me, like 28A. It seems very hard to make these difficult unless they’re unfairly vague. Did any readers get the same satisfaction from this as from working out the wordplay and def in a clue like 17, or even just half-remembering Polly Flinders at 2? Continue reading “DT 25960 – Review”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This puzzle was a very pleasant Thursday surprise for me, with many clever and amusing clues. I enjoyed it a lot.
Continue reading “DT 25964”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A pleasant puzzle that didn’t overly exercise the brain cells. Continue reading “DT 25963”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Another Tuesday and another fine puzzle, full of well crafted clues. After last week’s debate on how difficult the puzzle was I’ll be interested to see how people react to this one – I vacillated between three and four stars but eventually plumped for three.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I am sorry to have to tell you that Tilsit is back in hospital, so I’ve had to do this in a bit of a rush. Very much a typical start to the week from out “Monday Maestro”, but just about into three-star difficulty.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Not as complicated today, although the grid was a bit “cornery”, there are some nice “gimme” clues available in all corners to get you started. For example 2d, 7d, 24a, and 12d. Mind you it still deserves three stars because after that you still have to tease out the other answers.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Decent grid, harder clues than usual for me – say 50% longer than a typical Saturday timing. Quite a few place-names, though I’d only count one as difficult. Last few answers in approx order for me: 11, 8, 1A, 5, 2, 4. (Dave says I should put A or D next to all the numbers, but I’m too good at choosing the wrong one and generating “You did really mean 8A didn’t you?” comments. So no letters from me except where they’re essential. Tough answer words or wordplay elements were: 8 (medlar), 11, 5, 23. Most of the clues were good, but some really let the side down.