Big Dave's Crossword Blog – Page 1233 – Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English

Toughie No 92

by Big Dave  

Toughie No 92 by Firefly

A challenging puzzle

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

I was racing through this one, with thoughts of a relatively early night, when suddenly I hit a brick wall in the bottom right hand corner.  At least three out of the five difficulty stars are for this corner – see what you think.

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DT Cryptic No 25848

by Big Dave  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25848

A similar puzzle to yesterday

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Yesterday was a big day here on Big Dave’s Blog – for the first time there were over 1000 hits on the site.  This was partly because it was the first daily cryptic that was covered in detail, and partly due to some excellent mentions on Times for the Times and Fifteensquared, for which I would like to thank Peter and Neil respectively.  Peter also contributed to yesterday’s comments.

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DT Cryptic No 25847

by Big Dave  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25847

A nice easy one to start the week

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***

Don’t forget the highlighted words link to items of interest

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ST Cryptic No 2470 – Hints

by Big Dave  

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2470

A harder than usual Sunday puzzle

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

I rated this as hard because I found it difficult to get started in three out of the four corners.  Most of the answers are everyday words, but you do have to work a bit harder than with the weekday cryptics.

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DT Cryptic No 25846 – Hints

by Big Dave  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25846

Today’s puzzle I found a little easy for a Saturday

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment *

If you have come across here from Crossword ends in violence, then you probably have seen my contributions before.  As I mentioned elsewhere on this site, I intend to give substantial hints and tips for the weekday crosswords, but for Saturday I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.

It’s been a struggle finding any clues worth giving hints, this is one of the easiest prize crosswords for a long time.

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Toughie No 90

by Big Dave  

Toughie No 90 by Elgar

A challenging puzzle with two long phrases

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

Woke up this morning to find that the light dusting of snow that has been around for a few days has been replaced by a full carpet – I have added a new picture  to the Gallery.  As a new feature, started yesterday with “Freight Train”, some hints link to supplementary information!!

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Toughie No 88

by Big Dave  

Toughie No 88 by Giovanni

A nice easy one to start the week

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

•A few across clues to get you going – I’ll add some of the down clues later

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Toughie No 87

by Big Dave  

Toughie No 87 by Warbler

A little easier than yesterday, but well constructed

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

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Just a few to be going on with:

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