Toughie No 118 by Giovanni
Relatively easy despite some long answers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
DT Cryptic No 25886
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25886
Today’s hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A typical Thursday puzzle with some interesting clues but not too taxing.
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Toughie No 117
Toughie No 117 by Messinae
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thought that this Toughie was somewhat easier than usual. Of course these views are totally subjective, and if you think differently please let us know via a comment.
DT Cryptic No 25885
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25885
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A very enjoyable crossword today with a good variety of clues. By that I found that both the variety of types of clues and the complexity of clues was very well balanced.
Toughie No 116
Toughie No 116 by Firefly
Another very enjoyable Toughie
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
DT Cryptic No 25884
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25884
Today’s hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
This one is not overly difficult but has some cleverly-worded clues. I found it very enjoyable.
DT Cryptic No 25883
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25883
Today’s hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Tilsit joins us for the first time today. As I mentioned on Saturday, he will already be known to avid followers of fifteensquared, and his credentials include answering questions on Crosswords, as his specialist subject, on Mastermind. The standard DT Cyptic should be very easy for someone like him, but he faces sterner stuff when he does battle with a Toughie later in the week. BD
Thanks to Big Dave for his introduction. I hope these blogs live up to the high standard that he and the rest of the gang have set. Because of my other activities within the crossword world, I often get requests from solvers about the best way to start solving cryptic puzzles and my answer is invariably the same. Start with Monday’s Telegraph and Guardian puzzles, you rarely go wrong.  That’s because they are usually set by one of the doyens of the black and white squares – Roger Squires. Roger (aka Rufus in the Graun) provides some of the most accessible and solver-friendly puzzles and amongst his talents, he is a master of a type of clue known as the Cryptic Definition, of which there are a few in this puzzle.
ScrewedUp News – Mar 22
ScrewedUp News – Mar 22
Edition 12
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A small milestone – this is the 100th post on this blog!!
Mar 23 – Quick No 43 put in an appearance some time during today, and GK 853 was declared void – see the comments below.
What has happened to today’s Quick Crossword – No 43? Vanished without trace!!
It also seems that there is a problem in the newspaper with the grid for GK 853. You can download the online grid here: Continue reading “ScrewedUp News – Mar 22”
ST Cryptic No 2476 – Hints
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2476
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
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, March 26th.
Some hints to get you started: Continue reading “ST Cryptic No 2476 – Hints”
ScrewedUp News – Mar 21
ScrewedUp News – Mar 21
Edition 11
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Mar 23 – I’m not sure when it happened, but Codewords No 1255 has now been updated, as usual it now has a completely different set of numbers.
It’s Saturday again, so it’s time for another edition of ScrewedUp News!!
If you try to access the Giant GK crossword No 12254 through the home page then, guess what? – yes, you get last week’s. You need to access it via one of the other pages, like “Play Puzzles”.
Also there are errors in GK Quick No 87 and Codewords No 1255: