Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26062
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
I thought this was quite an easy puzzle, but there were a few clues that generated queries last weekend. My only real complaints were the use of “from” to indicate an anagram and the American term for a water pistol, which is rarely used in the UK, although I would be interested to read your opinion on these.
Tilsit hopes to be back in this slot next week.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Toughie No 238 by Warbler
Hints and Tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Tilsit is currently being given the run-around at the hospital – being wheeled from department to department. He is hoping to be let out on parole for good behaviour this evening, and to be able to write the review then.
Sorry for the lateness with the posting but as Big Dave said, I have been ferried around the hospital in preparation for going home tomorrow. However, courtesy of a rather nice nurse, I was able to get all of today’s newspaper puzzles printed off and I was able to solve them while waiting for treatment. With the exception of today’s Independent puzzle by our old chum Elgar, this Toughie was the most enjoyable of them all.
It was quite a tough solve, though and some of the clues needed a bit of thinking outside the box. However the anagrams were nice and appropriate, although I don’t like “made up names” as in 26 across. There were also some good uses of present-day words and phrases, rather than some puzzles where you feel like you’re being transported back to the 1950’s. There were a couple of dodgy surface readings, though. Rather too many anagrams for my liking too.
Here we go. Have your say (some of you already have!) and / or rate the puzzle using the star system.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26066
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** and a half – Enjoyment ***
I didn’t find this a particularly complicated puzzle, but I enjoyed doing it. A decent grid, a nice mix of clues, and a couple to make you smile. What more do you need whilst you are eating your breakfast, or enjoying the first cup of coffee for the day.
Any comments are appreciated.
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Toughie No 237 by Osmosis
The Nectar of the Gods
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
As usual Osmosis has produced a challenging Toughie, where getting the answer is often much simpler than working out the wordplay. This is an example of how a Toughie can be tricky and entertaining without resorting to very obscure words or the names of people that few have ever heard of.
Let us know what you think of it via a comment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26065
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Calderdale Hospital where yours truly is still recovering and likely to be here for a little while longer. This was a reasonably typical midweek puzzle which should please most people, although there were a couple of pitfalls here and there.
I thought a number of the surface readings were a little contrived for one or two clues, but otherwise it was a pleasant challenge.
As usual, the answers can be revealed by highlighting between the squiggly brackets and you can rate the puzzle by clicking on the star ratings. Feel free to comment, but newer posters need to be approved first to prevent those nasty spammers from peddling their rubbish.
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Toughie No 236 by Excalibur
In The Doldrums
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
You are either going to like this or hate it. Me I hated it. I guessed what I was dealing with after two or three clues and plodded on feeling older and wearier as I realised what each answer was. When I had finished I felt as if I had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.
Do we have any volunteers who might want to review an Excalibur Toughie? There has to be someone who likes this style of crossword and would be able to put in a good word.
Lets hope the normal cryptic is more enjoyable.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26064
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
The first thing to say about today’s puzzle is that there are no cricketing terms at all (well, 26a could relate to a cricket team, but I’ve chosen to go with football instead). Apart from that we have a novel anagram indicator in 7d and a strange, but entertaining, clue at 16d.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets – just select the white space inside the brackets to reveal them, if you need to.
All comments, whether from seasoned campaigners or first-timers, are very welcome.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26063
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Another excellent start to the week from our Monday Maestro.
Leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2505
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Quite a tough puzzle this week – a change from the usual gentle Sunday stroll. No harm in this when it’s a prize puzzle, and an easy few months or so may have been deliberate while solvers adapted to a style very different to the old Sunday Telegraph puzzles.
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Toughie No 235 by Citrus
“You had me cornered”
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Today I have a special treat for you as Anax joins the reviewing panel. He will be known by name to solvers of puzzles in the Independent and by reputation to those in the Times where, as with the regular Telegraph cryptics, the setters are anonymous. The Bloggers page has been updated, so you can read more about Anax there, as well as getting an insight into why he uses the name Anax! I’m sure you can work out for yourselves that anagrind and inserticator are crosswordese for anagram and insertion indicators respectively. BD
The NE and SW corners of this were hard to crack – the former because I was just being a bit dim, the latter because of one obscurity and two bits of wordplay I had difficulty unravelling. Much of the early progress was thanks to going with instinct for the long answer at 4Dn, which gives me an opportunity for a quick solving tip; far from being put off by long answers, they’re often a very good place to start. The simple truth is you either get them immediately or you don’t, and if you do they can provide plenty of starters for cross-checking answers. If you don’t – well, it was worth looking.
I’m unfamiliar with this setter’s style so, inevitably, my solution has a few questioning ticks here and there, but that’s not always an indication of doubt over clue soundness. The Telegraph house style trends away from Ximenean and what might puzzle “purists” may well be perfectly OK here.
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