Big Dave's Crossword Blog – Page 1356 – Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English

DT Cryptic No 25913

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25913

Hints and tips by Tilsit

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

A little bit tougher than the last few Mondays with some of the normal cryptic definitions requiring a bit more thought.  Today’s was chock-full of double definition clues though.

Quite enjoyable and a fair challenge, so thanks to our Monday Maestro!

Continue reading “DT Cryptic No 25913”

ST Cryptic No 2481 – Hints

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2481 – Hints

Selected hints by Big Dave

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ****

It looks like this change in style is here to stay.  Once again we have a puzzle where the level of enjoyment is disproportionately higher than the difficulty.

For the weekend prize crosswords I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.  A full analysis of this puzzle will be available at 12.00 next Thursday, 30th April.

Some hints to get you started:

Continue reading “ST Cryptic No 2481 – Hints”

DT Cryptic No 25912 – Hints

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25912 – Hints

Selected hints by Big Dave

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment *

There’s not much I can say about this puzzle, other than this week there are no place names in it.  Girls’ names feature twice in the answers and once in the wordplay.  If it wasn’t for the self-imposed responsibility of producing some hints for this blog, I would be inclined to stop doing these Saturday puzzles altogether.

Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 30th April.  I wish him well!

Continue reading “DT Cryptic No 25912 – Hints”

Toughie No 135

Toughie No 135 by Cephas

A puzzle that irritated more than it pleased

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment **

It’s been a while since we had a puzzle from Cephas.  I found this one to have a few very good clues, but that was outweighed by the not-so-good.  Particular niggles include places being clued on words like capital and wordplay which uses unimaginative constructs like inability is the opposite of ability and campaign is campaigner without the “er”. Continue reading “Toughie No 135”

DT Cryptic No 25911

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25911

Hints and tips by Libellule

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

Hmm, I did not think this was one of the better Friday crosswords today. However in conversation with Gazza, he seems to think it’s the most difficult one of the week.  On the plus side I did learn a new slang term.

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ST Cryptic No 2480 – Review

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2480 – Review

A full analysis by Big Dave

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ****

This was the most enjoyable Sunday puzzle in a long time.  It’s hard to explain how one relatively easy puzzle is more satisfying than another – it has a lot to do with the “smile factor” :D that you get when you have solved a particular clue. Continue reading “ST Cryptic No 2480 – Review”

DT Cryptic No 25906 – Review

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25906 – Review

A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe

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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***

A mixed bag this one. The grid has a distinctive Telegraph style to it, with the longish answers at 12, 13, 18, 21 placed in the middle of the grid rather than at one side, and quite a few double unches. But it mostly comes up smelling of roses, with fair checking all round and very generous 80% checking for the 10-letter answers. The only niggle is that we get 12 four-letter words.

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Toughie No 134

Toughie No 134 by Excalibur

Hints and tips by Tilsit

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment **

Greetings from the hospital again!  I have quite enjoyed solving on line with the Telegraph site something I didn’t do prior to admission.  Indeed my collection of 50+ pencils in their very own kidney bowl is a constant source of amusement to the nurses and worry to the Doctors, who feel I may have a touch of OCD.  The fact that when I am admitted to hospital, the first thing I pack every time is my Chamber’s and Bradford’s is another worry for them too.

My initial solving reaction was that I quite enjoyed it, but as I have begun to look deeper, I find quite a few things that both trouble and irritate me.

Continue reading “Toughie No 134”