Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26767
Hints and tips by Digby
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
From Closet Blogger, to occasional comments, via offering the odd tip to help guide Mary out of the Clueless Club, I suppose that this was the inevitable next step. I think it was Falcon who said that writing his first blog was like riding a bike without the training wheels. Now I know what he meant! Knowing that BD, and the rest of the team, is “out there” to help is a great comfort, however. We have a nicely balanced puzzle today from Giovanni. A good mix of difficulty and clue construction (including a couple of “old chestnuts”) that should please everyone. But what do you think?
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26762
A full review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/***– Enjoyment ***
A slightly trickier offering from Cephas this week but as enjoyable as usual, with a nice mix of clues including his trademark anagrams and a couple of new words to learn.
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Toughie No 705 by Shamus
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
When Anax posted yesterday that there would be an Elkamere puzzle today I got the knives out and started sharpening them. Sadly I’ll have to put them away for another week at least. But we did get an enjoyable puzzle today which wasn’t too difficult once I’d established a bridgehead. I needed to think a bit more than usual to work out some of the wordplay.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26766
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This puzzle exhibits the unmistakeable characteristics of one of my favourite setters. A glance at the Quick crossword confirms that Ray T is our Thursday Tormentor.
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Toughie No 704 by Excalibur
An Outbreak of 4-Letter Words
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment **
When I found out last night that my task today was to review an Excalibur puzzle I wasn’t too disappointed because I thought that her previous one was pretty good. Sadly, this one isn’t! It’s nowhere near Toughie standard and many of the clues are weak (this is not helped by the grid having no less than fourteen four-letter words).
Please let us know how you found the puzzle and take the time to register your enjoyment of it by clicking on one of the stars below.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26765
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from blustery Ottawa where we are currently in the midst of a blizzard. Today’s puzzle is a fairly typical offering from Jay – if perhaps a bit less difficult than usual – with lots of clues where one must either strip the outer letters from words or eviscerate words.
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Toughie No 703 by Giovanni
It’s a Dog’s Life
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I have complained in the past that some of Giovanni’s Toughies would be better suited to the back page. Not this one! This was, in my opinion, his best for a long time. A number of lesser-known words and one of those anagrams that is indicated by part of the answer – all conspire to make this a lot harder than the usual Tuesday fare.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26764
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Libellule is still tied up today so you’re stuck with me once again – that’s the bad news. The good news is that our manager has taken advantage of the January transfer window to sign up an exciting brand new blogger who will be making his or her debut on Friday – so that’s something different to look forward to.
Today’s puzzle by the Mysteron is just about as straightforward as they get and it’s only really my abysmal typing skills which have promoted it from one to two stars for difficulty. However, as we always say, the difficulty level is nothing to do with the enjoyment factor, and it contains some entertaining clues. It does, unfortunately, offer limited opportunities for visual aids.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26763
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ***
It’s hectic chez Libellule this morning so he and I have done a swap and he’ll be here tomorrow. This gives me the opportunity to blog a Rufus puzzle. I enjoyed this one (double unches and all) with its beautifully smooth surface readings. Let us know how you got on.
In case my hints prove inadequate the answers are also provided – just highlight the space between the brackets under the clues.
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Toughie No 702 by Firefly
Leave till tomorrow?
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from the Calder Valley! The sun is cracking the flags here in Hebden Bridge and we have a nice benign puzzle to begin the weekend from Firefly. I got off to the wrong start by thinking that 5 down was a simple anagram and this blocked me for a short while, but once I realised I had this answer wrong, the puzzle fell into place.
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