Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26739
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
A piece of (Christmas) cake! (Thanks to Gazza for that).
ST 2619 (Hints)
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2619 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the more difficult clues and provide hints for them.
NTSPP – 097 (Review)
Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 097
A Puzzle by Alchemi
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We welcome back Alchemi with a gentle crossword that should not cause anyone too many problems today. Alchemi’s Guardian roots show with some more libertarian clues such as the use of forerib and legend that have to be split to get the wordplay instructions that you would not find in some crosswords.
NTSPP – 097
Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 097
A Puzzle by Alchemi
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Welcome to the latest in our series of weekly puzzles.
This week we have another puzzle from Alchemi.
DT 26738 (Hints)
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26738 (Hints)
The Saturday Crossword Club
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I have added two new entries to The Mine.
Horses and Riders has been a long time in preparation, but is finally available. What was the name of Napoleon’s horse? Which horse survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Those questions, and many others, are all answered.
James Bond Movies gives the actors who played Bond, the Villains and the Bond Girls along with information about the theme music, singers and composers.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, an assortment of clues, including some of the more difficult ones, have been selected and hints provided for them.
Toughie 686
Toughie No 686 by Elkamere
The Bigger Picture!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from the Calder Valley. After expecting Firefly or Myops today, I was pleasantly surprised to see that today’s Tormentor was Elkamere. I think this is the first outing on a Friday for him and the puzzle is more than worthy of its place in the spot reserved for the hardest puzzle of the week.
This is a slightly unusual puzzle and one that I appreciate may cause a few solvers to give up. There are some lovely elegant clues, but the “gimmick” of the puzzle is clever and perhaps some may say a bit too clever. In this puzzle, there are four clues that have the indications of four and six letters each with grid slots for the four letters. The clues are all “justified” by 14 across. An explanation is shown after the Downs, although you will need to highlight it to see it. I twigged 5 across fairly quickly but couldn’t see how it fitted in to the scheme of things. Only when I completed the grid did it dawn on me how it worked. There was a Guardian setter called Apex who used to use a similar sort of device in some of his puzzles and it is nice to see this sort of working again here.
ST 2618
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2618
A full review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty **– Enjoyment ***
Of all the people who commented on this puzzle on Sunday, I appear to have been the only one who found it straightforward to solve; everyone else struggled with the left-hand side, although we all seemed to agree that Virgilius provided us with the usual great Sunday entertainment. My favourites are marked in blue. Continue reading “ST 2618”
DT 26737
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26737
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I thought this was a really enjoyable Giovanni puzzle. Let us know how you got on with it.
If you need to reveal an answer just highlight the space between the brackets under the troubling clue.
DT 26732
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26732
A full review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
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I do hope Gnomethang negotiated a good rate of overtime pay as he certainly seems to be putting in some very long hours lately.  Luckily this week I was prepared for a last minute call for help and had kept my solved grid and made notes just in case, little thinking that I would need them.  Looking at his comments on the day, I think he might have given this a higher difficulty rating were he writing this blog, but I have based my assessment on my solving time.   I did enjoy this typical Cephas Saturday puzzle, with lots of his favourite anagram indicators and it has been nice to revisit it. Continue reading “DT 26732”
Toughie 685
Toughie No 685 by Micawber
Let’s all play Charades!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Last Friday Tilsit gifted me a Notabilis and now Bufo has taken a day off and left me a superb Micawber puzzle to review!