Friday – Page 5 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Category: Friday

Friday’s current setter is Don Manley who is also known as Giovanni, Duck, Pasquale, Quixote, and Bradman (all punningly connected with the name Don or Donald)

DT 31132

by Mr K  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31132

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty ** -  Enjoyment ****

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. This puzzle was a quick solve that managed to be very enjoyable. I congratulate our setter.  Continue reading "DT 31132"

Toughie 3612

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3612 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****

There are a few gimmes here but in the main this required a fair bit of work. There are no anagrams (that’s fine by me) and I enjoyed the challenge a lot. Thanks to Osmosis.
Continue reading “Toughie 3612”

DT 31126

by Mr K  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31126

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty **** -  Enjoyment ***

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Today I couldn’t fully parse one clue or get the Quickie pun, so not a great start to the year for me.  Continue reading "DT 31126"

Toughie 3608

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3608 by Elgar
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****


I hope all our readers had an enjoyable day yesterday and are now enjoying their cold turkey.… Continue reading

DT 31120

by Mr K  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31120

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty *** -  Enjoyment ***

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the final Friday puzzle of 2025.  I struggled to get on wavelength today, likely the result of trying to hint alter an indulgent Christmas Day.  Continue reading "DT 31120"

DT 31114

by Mr K  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31114

Hints and tips by Mr K

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BD Rating  -  Difficulty *** -  Enjoyment ***

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Friday.  I found today’s grid fill fairly straightforward, but there were a few clues where figuring out the parsing took some time .  Continue reading "DT 31114"

Toughie 3600

by Gazza  

Toughie No 3600 by Elgar
Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****

Elgar provides his usual mixture of a few gimmes and quite a lot of head-scratchers. I enjoyed battling through it. Thanks to him.

The clue which gave me most problems was 4d and I’m not totally convinced that I understand the ‘shepherd’ bit so do shout out if you have a better idea than mine. [Deansleigh61 has come to the rescue with the correct parsing – see his comment] Continue reading “Toughie 3600”