Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26047
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Tilsit is taking a few days off to attend to other matter, but don’t worry he’s not unwell and should be back next week. Today’s puzzle is one of those that will probably split the opinions into two. The more experienced solvers will dismiss it, and the less experienced will be happy that they have finished it.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26041
One Banana, Two Banana, Three Banana Four…….
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment: ***
Greetings from the rain-kissed paradise that is the Calder Valley. A nice friendly puzzle that shouldn’t cause too much trouble to newer solvers, although a couple of clues require a careful reading of the words. I also thought there were rather a lot of anagrams (eleven actually, especially of short words and five out of the first six clues), which can suggest a little laziness on behalf of the setter, although here the surface readings of clues are generally very good.
As usual, the answers are “hidden” inside the curly brackets. Highlighting them will reveal all. At the end of the blog, you can click on the star rating to show your opinion on the puzzle, and of course, you are welcome to have your say at the end and newer posters should note that their first posts sometimes take a little while to appear due to having to be moderated to check for spammers.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26035
A Grumpy Old Man writes……
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Greetings from the Calder Valley where I have been largely incarcerated in my flat , as the old illness has been playing up. One of the joys of my imprisonment, apart from the chance to get my blood nice and angry watching the Jeremy Kyle Show and other daytime delights, has been that I have been solving (and compiling) quite a few crosswords from all of the national newspapers.
This has left me in a bit of a dilemma about today’s cryptic. While I am sure that a few of you will feel happy about it because you have been able to solve it, I actually feel cheated of a challenge with it. I just felt it was not worthy of its place in a national newspaper. Some of the clues were utterly dreadful and downright unfair. If you are asked to name a little boy, would you think of the answer NAT? An answer worthy of the new BBC2 daytime quiz show Pointless, where the object is to get answers no-one thinks of.
I am not sure who the setter was today but it was almost my fastest Telegraph solve of all time.
Time for you to feel the love.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26029
All Puzzled Out!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from the Peoples’ Republic of Hebden Bridge, and before I start, a quick word of thanks to Gazza for covering last Thursday’s Toughie for me at short notice. I must confess to feeling somewhat drained as I have managed to do the Telegraph, Guardian, Independent and Times puzzles today. I figured that one or two might have something special going on (09/09/09), and was right. Today’s Telegraph wasn’t one of them, but then I wasn’t expecting it to be.
I wrote last week about clues hitting the target, but not the bullseye or gold and today’s puzzle is like that. The surface reading of some clues is off the mark, and others just seem inaccurate (What is a carbon-free decree?) Should we expect our clues to make sense, or are we spoilt when some setters spend their time achieving accuracy in their surface readings? As an aspiring compiler, I spend a lot of my time trying to write clues that read well and make sense both literally and factually. The fact that many of my attempts end up in the waste or recycle bin because they don’t must say something.
I found today’s DT puzzle to be reasonable, nothing more or less. There was nothing in there that really troubled me and I would be terribly surprised if most of the regulars felt differently. What I did miss was anything to make me smile and I did find that in abundance in the other three daily puzzles I solved. I did deliberately make sure this was the first one I solved today, but it just seemed rather humdrum, I’m afraid.
As usual, I’d love to see your thoughts, and you can leave them after the blog. Newer visitors should note that the clue answers are hidden between the curly brackets, and you need to highlight between the brackets with your mouse to view them. New message posters should note that your first post also takes a little while to appear, as they are moderated for spammers.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26023
Welcome to Pam!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
It was very odd not having to rush around on Monday getting a blog ready in between visits from the nurse, carers and suchlike. Wednesday’s are usually lazy mornings for me, followed by the cut and thrust of the Bridge Club doing battle with some of the evil grannies of Brierfield (They are not really evil, but they are ferocious bridge players!).
I must start today by welcoming a newcomer to the blog in the shape of Pam, who also goes to the Bridge Club, however she is neither a granny or evil (she may be the former, but not the latter as far as I know!). Although Pam is a very fine bridge player, she is dipping her toe into the world of Telegraph crosswords for the first time after being prised away from the Everyman in the Observer and is visiting us for the first time. Welcome Pam, you are among friends. The drinks are on you!
Today’s puzzle is another good puzzle for those getting to grips with crosswords for the first time. As usual, the answers are hidden in white inside the curly brackets. Highlighting them will reveal the answer.
Feel free to have your say about what you liked or disliked in the discussion after the analysis. There’s also the star ratings, click on your star opinion to show what you thought. New posters should note that your first post may take a little time to appear as they are moderated to prevent spammers causing havoc.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26017
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This pleasant puzzle shouldn’t give those grey cells too much exercise this morning (but you can always do the Toughie!). A couple of minor issues will be covered in the review.
Following the accidental success of Monday’s placeholder posting, I have added this while still preparing the review – feel free to discuss via the comments.
You can add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26011
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
This is an easy puzzle, which should leave you plenty of time to tackle today’s Toughie from Cephas, our regular Saturday setter. This week there is no surfeit of cryptic definitions, but you do find yourself expecting that if it isn’t an anagram then it might be a hidden word!
You can add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26005
Let’s all play charades
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
If you enjoy playing charades, then this is the puzzle for you. For the rest of us it was an average puzzle apart from the one or two new words.
You can add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25999
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This enjoyable puzzle is only spoilt a little by the dodgy anagram indicators.
You can add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
For new viewers, the answers can be seen by selecting the space between the curly brackets – we do this so that you can look up one or two answers without seeing all of them. The first time you leave a comment it will need to be moderated before others can view it – this is to prevent the site being overrun by spammers; over 800 have been intercepted so far!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25993
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This is turning out to be “New Solvers Week” as we are presented with another relatively easy puzzle. It’s on days like this that you get the full benefits of retirement – torrential rain and no need to go outside!
Two years ago this month I was returning home on a Friday evening and only got as far as Moreton-in-the-Marsh, where the High Street had turned into a river. I spent the night in a pub (things could have been a lot worse!) and finally managed to reach Hanley Swan on Saturday evening.
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