25960 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

DT 25960 – Review

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25960 – Review

A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe

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

Much harder than most recent Saturday puzzles – something like double my average time for them.  Mostly good grid, though it does have eight 7-letter words with only three checked letters. Some of my potential quibbles disappeared after looking up words in Chambers, so there are only a couple of clues I’d count as unfair.   That said, there are some very easy cryptic definition clues to go with the difficult ones.  Generally a better puzzle than most Saturdays as others said in the hints posting.  My main reservation is the number of cryptic definitions which seem weak to me, like 28A.  It seems very hard to make these difficult unless they’re unfairly vague.  Did any readers get the same satisfaction from this as from working out the wordplay and def in a clue like 17, or even just half-remembering Polly Flinders at 2? Continue reading “DT 25960 – Review”

DT 25960 – Hints

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25960 – Hints

Selected hints by Big Dave

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

Our Saturday setter shows what can be done, with the best prize puzzle for quite a while.  Put the atlas away, and those books of baby names, all you need this week is to sip on a cocktail.

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, 25th June.

Continue reading “DT 25960 – Hints”