100003 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

ST 100003

Sunday Telegraph Christmas Day Cryptic No 100,003

A full review by Gnomethang

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment ****

Afternoon All! Suddenly this excellent festive puzzle on Christmas Day by Virgilius seems an awfully long way away as my nose is well and truly back on the grindstone!. All of the across clues can have the word CHRISTMAS either before or after them as described in 16a. I found this an excellent puzzle and was just right for the Christmas morning. Continue reading “ST 100003”

Double Toughie 100003

Double Toughie No 100003 by Elgar

Watch out, Vlad is back!

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BD Rating – Difficulty *****4Enjoyment *****

No fluffy pink slippers today – Elgar has produced this special double-Toughie for Christmas Day. Doubling the size is bad enough, but the addition of the kind of gimmick usually only found in the more advanced barred puzzles has made this four times as difficult.

Please read the instructions given with the puzzle very carefully before starting. Discovering the theme early on, which I did, helps greatly with the puzzle, as does the Nina around the edges of each of the two halves of the puzzle.

Continue reading “Double Toughie 100003”

ST 100003 (Hints)

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 100003 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Big Dave

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This is an online-only Christmas Day special.

As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the more difficult clues and provide hints for them.


Continue reading “ST 100003 (Hints)”