Toughie No 190 by Kcit
Elegant and Enjoyable
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from a soggy Calder Valley (Hebden Bridge sur mer!) and here are the results of Thursday’s Toughie Jury. In his various guises, Kcit is one of my favourite setters and like Giovanni produces beautifully consistent and elegant puzzles. Today’s is no exception and contains clues to make you smile, as well as clues that are technically sound and accurate.
Incidentally some news for those of you who also tackle the Guardian puzzle. One of their long-running setters, Albie Fiore, who compiled under the pen-name Taupi (and Satori in the FT) died yesterday. Albie’s puzzles were usually fiendishly difficult, but always fair and contained elegance and wit in every clue. A sad loss to the world of crosswords. My condolences to his wife and family.
Don’t forget you can rate the puzzle by awarding it a star rating below left. Your comments are always welcome and positively encouraged. New posters always take a little longer to appear as the first post has to be approved to check for spammers. Continue reading “Toughie 190”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25994
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
There are a couple of strange anagram indicators in this puzzle. What’s your view on anagram indicators – do you think that virtually anything is acceptable, or should the indicator be a clear instruction to rearrange the letters of the adjacent word(s)? Let’s have a mass debate as Mrs Merton so graphically put it!
Please take the time to grade the enjoyment factor of the puzzle by selecting and clicking on one of the stars at the bottom of the review. As always your comments are most welcome.
Continue reading “DT 25994”
Toughie No 189 by Campbell
A Delight for the Polymath
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Having completed this puzzle, I felt that it had taken me longer than it should have done. It’s a good solid Toughie with a couple of new words (to me, at least) thrown in, and enough classical, literary, floral and geographical references to delight any polymath. There is an error in the version on Clued Up which has the wrong length for 9d.
Please take the time to vote for the entertainment factor by selecting and clicking on one of the stars at the bottom of the review. As always we’d be delighted to get your comments.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25993
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This is turning out to be “New Solvers Week” as we are presented with another relatively easy puzzle. It’s on days like this that you get the full benefits of retirement – torrential rain and no need to go outside!
Two years ago this month I was returning home on a Friday evening and only got as far as Moreton-in-the-Marsh, where the High Street had turned into a river. I spent the night in a pub (things could have been a lot worse!) and finally managed to reach Hanley Swan on Saturday evening.
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Toughie No 188 by Warbler
Fun without being too difficult
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I enjoyed this puzzle without feeling that I had been over-stretched. I even survived interruptions from the dog, the window-cleaner and the postman!
Continue reading “Toughie 188”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25992
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This is an ideal puzzle for someone starting out on cryptics, but probably not enough of a challenge for the experienced solver. Our experiment in letting everyone define the enjoyment factor is still running – please take the time to set the number of stars at the bottom of the review. Remember that you are grading the puzzle for enjoyment, not difficulty, so set the number of stars from 1 (hated it!) to 5 (the most enjoyment I’ve had all month!) or somewhere in between.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25991
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Quite an enjoyable start to the week with some very good cryptic definitions, which are the hallmarks of the Monday Maestro. However, there are a couple of not-so-good ones, which is a shame, otherwise this would have been a real quality puzzle.
As usual, your comments are appreciated.
Continue reading “DT 25991”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2494 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Some time during today the view count on the blog will almost certainly reach 250,000 – all achieved in a day or two under 6 months. I’d like to thank all of you for your support over those 6 months and hope you will stay on for the next 6 months and beyond.
Many of you will be pleased to know that this puzzle is not as difficult as the one from a week ago.
Yesterday and today I am trying an experiment with a new WordPress feature. At the bottom of the post you will see an array of five stars – use these to give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between. Please remember you are assessing the puzzle and not my attempt to explain it! If enough of you use this feature then it will be retained for future puzzles, so it’s up to you – vote now.
At the moment the rating system can’t be turned on post by post, which means you can rate any previous puzzle. While you are welcome to do that (and some already have) it would seem unlikely that the numbers entered will be sufficient for a realistic rating.
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 Friday, 31st July.
Continue reading “ST 2494 – Hints”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25990 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment: ***
As with most Suturday puzzles, this one is quite easy.
For the next two days I am trying an experiment with a new WordPress feature. At the bottom of the post you will see an array of five stars – use these to give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between. Please remember you are assessing the puzzle and not my attempt to explain it! If enough of you use this feature then it will be retained for future puzzles, so it’s up to you – vote now.
At the moment the rating system can’t be turned on post by post, which means you can rate any previous puzzle. While you are welcome to do that (and some already have) it would seem unlikely that the numbers entered will be sufficient for a realistic rating.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 30th July.
Continue reading “DT 25990 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2493 – Review
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
This Sunday puzzle is approaching the standard set by some Toughies. It make take a little while, but it is well worth the effort.
Continue reading “ST 2493 – Review”