Toughie No 720 by Notabilis
Pass the wet towels, Nurse!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Another Wednesday and we have another fine Toughie to enjoy, this time from Notabilis. Personally I prefer this style of Toughie, where there are no very obscure words and the “toughness” is in the wordplay. He does take a few imaginative liberties with the anagram indicators.
Please let us know how you got on and take the time to register your enjoyment factor by clicking on one of the stars below.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26789
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Hola from the Vega Baja. Another enjoyable offering from Jay which raised a few smiles and had a few d’oh moments as well. If I’ve counted right there are 4 anagrams and 2 partial anagrams so that should keep some of you happy! Also the usual quota of ‘take the first and/or last letter’ type of clue.
Unfortunately limited opportunities for pictures of scantily clad ladies!
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Toughie No 719 by Warbler
Love is in the air!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Today Warbler has given us another delightful puzzle. Several of the down clues are topically themed.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26788
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I was half-expecting a themed puzzle today but instead we have one which is a bit more of a challenge than the usual Tuesday fare. I got off to a very bad start by writing in (m)ARCH for 9a, then, having recovered from that, got a bit bogged down in the SW corner. Let us know how you got on.
If you want to see an answer just highlight the spaces between the brackets under the clue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26787
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Digby has other engagements today and Libellule is still on nursing duties so I have grabbed the opportunity to review a Rufus puzzle. This one contains a fair number of Rufus’s signature cryptic definitions, a couple of which require you to think out-of the-box.
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Toughie No 718 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from the Calder Valley. Our Friday Fiend is Firefly who has produced an interesting and challenging puzzle that will delight some, and perhaps infuriate others. I found it more enjoyable than some of his recent offerings but I found a couple of clues that could only be solved once I had the answer, which isn’t the point of a crossword, as far as I am aware, in other words a bit too clever for their own good. I’d be interested to see if anyone managed to solve 12 across without getting all the intersecting letters. Lots of clever surface readings but again the odd one that doesn’t quite work for me.
I looked around for a theme, or a Nina, especially given the grid used, but couldn’t see anything other than a linked clue.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2625
A full review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
An unusual mix of clues this week from Virgilius – not one single anagram, and, unless you count 1a (which is sort of hidden) none of the trademark hidden clues either. This time more straightforward than tricky but as usual excellent fun. Favourite clues highlighted in blue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26785
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
We have a really enjoyable puzzle from Giovanni today with some great clues. Let us know how it grabbed you.
If you’re desperate to get an answer just highlight the word hidden behind the spaces between the brackets under the relevant clue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26780
A full review by gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Morning All! We had an enjoyable puzzle last Saturday which was made more difficult from a hangover caused by my Birthday the previous day!.My solving time put it in the 3 star category but might not be representative.
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Toughie No 717 by Beam
Not one for the anagram lovers
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
After a slow start I made steady progress without ever stalling. I found the difficulty level to be slightly above average. I think the difficulty was enhanced by Beam’s policy of not including multi-word answers and by the complete absence of anagrams.
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