Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26210
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Absolutely superb stuff from Giovanni today. Some brilliant clues and some real laugh out loud moments.
I have really enjoyed doing this crosword and then writing the blog. I will be back on Monday (I hope) to tackle my first Rufus blog, until then please feel free to leave a comment.
If the hints are not enough to allow you to derive the answer, just highlight the space between the curly brackets!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26205
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another of the new, improved Saturday Prize puzzles. Let us know what you think – too easy?, too hard?, like it?, don’t like it?
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52.254523-2.266838
Toughie No 333 by Excalibur
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
A bit of a curate’s egg, this puzzle. Some stuff to be admired, but one or two very poor clues that really drag it back. 12 across is what can only be described as a complex anagram in that as far as I can see, you need to make an anagram of some letters within a word. No instruction to remove letters first, as is normal with this sort of clue. Excalibur certainly has a unique style of her own, which sort of divides the punters here. It’s very much a case of you pays your money……
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53.740718-2.012274
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26209
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Libellule has moved, from next week, to take on Rufus every Monday.
Thursday is our mystery day and, unsurprisingly, no setter has owned up to any of these mundane puzzles! This one does has one or two better clues, 17 across for example.
Please 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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Toughie No 332 by Giovanni
A Blast from the Past
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
You need to be of a certain age to remember some of the references in this puzzle. We have a U.S. statesman from the 1960s and a cricketer who played his last test match in 1961. This certainly qualified as a Toughie in terms of difficulty, but it was a bit disappointing for a Giovanni, with a scarcity of “Aha” moments and some less than smooth surface readings.
As always we like to hear your views – please take the time to leave a comment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26208
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Another Wednesday, another pleasant puzzle from our regular setter. As usual, there’s not too much in the way of awkward stuff but there are one of two things to make you think a little.
As usual, have your say after the analysis. The answers are contained inside the curly brackets after each clue and can be highlighted to reveal the solution. You can also click in the stars after the blog to give your verdict on the puzzle.
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53.740718-2.012274
Toughie No 331 by Shamus
An upper-class puzzle!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A very enjoyable puzzle from Shamus to start this week’s Toughies. Knowledge of real British and fictional Danish Royalty will come in handy today, along with a smattering of Geography and History.
Please 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 26207
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
It’s the turn of Shamus this Tuesday (I’m assuming) and he’s given us a not-too-difficult puzzle to ease us back into the normal routine after the holiday. It has some entertaining clues (although a few too many anagrams, for me). I did waver between two and three stars for difficulty, so I’d be interested in your views on this (or anything else).
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26206
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I’ve had a very frustrating morning. Libellule was due to write today’s blog but the never-ending problems with CluedUp (is there a worse commercial web site?) meant that he had no access to the puzzle, so I agreed to swap with him and he’ll be doing this Friday’s. So I went to my usual shop to get the paper, only to find that they were not yet open (it being a Bank Holiday). I eventually got a paper and carefully transcribed all the clues, only to find, just when I’d finished, that CluedUp was back!
Anyway, enough of my difficulties, what of the puzzle? Rufus has produced a nice, gentle themed crossword, which I think that most solvers should enjoy. We’d love to hear from you via a comment.
For new readers, the answer to each clue is hidden between the curly brackets under it – just drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets to reveal it.
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The blog will be a little late this morning due to, surprise, surprise, problems on CluedUp!
[BTW I can now access the site]
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