Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30801
Hints and tips by Shabbo
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Either I was on the setter’s wavelength from the start, or this was one of the gentlest Thursday crosswords that I have blogged. I shall let you be the judge of that. I spent most of the puzzle convincing myself that this was not the work of RayT, but then I came across the sweetheart in 25a and the Queen (albeit in a different guise) in 20d and all was well with the world. RayT it is. If we needed any more persuading, the average word count at 5.3 words/clue gives the game away. Interestingly (or not, you can decide!) all are single word solutions, but this is probably more a reflection on the grid rather than any intent of the part of our learned setter.
In the blog below, the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED and the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the “Click Here” buttons. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on and what you thought of the puzzle. Please also try to be positive – it’s only a bit of fun.
Thank you, Ray. Another lovely puzzle.