25930 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

DT 25930 – Review

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25930 – Review

A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

Another mixed bag of a Saturday puzzle for me. The grid is rather perverse. Combining 14-letter answers with the two 15-letter acrosses is a nice idea, but done a bit hamfistedly, making double unches (start of 7D, end of 17D), and although the 3 of 7 checking letters in these answers were uncommon enough to make these answers pretty clear, the double unches are not impressive. We also get four 5-letter answers with 2 letters checked, though again the checking letters for them are relatively helpful. The clues are generally good – I seem to be grumbling less than usual below – though the last one was disappointing.

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DT 25930 – Hints

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25930 – Hints

Selected Hints by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ***

Big Dave is taking a well-deserved weekend off, so I’ve been volunteered to provide selected hints for today’s and tomorrow’s prize puzzles.  As usual a full review of today’s puzzle by Peter Biddlecombe will appear next Thursday afternoon. I enjoyed doing this one, especially the cryptic clues.

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