Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25935
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Another relatively tricky Friday crossword. With a mixed bag of clues, some good some bad.
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Tag: Crossword
DT 25930 – Review
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25930 – Review
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Another mixed bag of a Saturday puzzle for me. The grid is rather perverse. Combining 14-letter answers with the two 15-letter acrosses is a nice idea, but done a bit hamfistedly, making double unches (start of 7D, end of 17D), and although the 3 of 7 checking letters in these answers were uncommon enough to make these answers pretty clear, the double unches are not impressive. We also get four 5-letter answers with 2 letters checked, though again the checking letters for them are relatively helpful. The clues are generally good – I seem to be grumbling less than usual below – though the last one was disappointing.
Toughie 150
Toughie No 150 by Micawber
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Hebden Bridge! I have now moved to my new flat and am settling in well. It was nice to pick up a crossword after a couple of days’ break and this Toughie was certainly one that merited the name, and was extremely enjoyable. Apologies for being late with today’s blog, a combination of unexpected visitors and workmen, conspired to make me run late.
Micawber is one of my favourite setters from elsewhere and this puzzle contained all the hallmarks of his puzzles. There were some lovely surface readings and clues to make you laugh out loud, although I am a bit puzzled about 2 down and there is a slip in 6 down.
Clue answers are contained inside the squiggly brackets, so highlight inside to see them. As usual, I am always pleased to read your thoughts, and many of the setters also visit here to see what you have to say and appreciate your feedback.
DT 25934
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25934
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This is a good, solid puzzle with some nice surface readings. I always think that if you are amused by the first clue across, which was the case for me here, then you are pre-disposed to like the whole puzzle.
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Toughie 149
Toughie No 149 by MynoT
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
I got 1a and 1d immediately and thought that the whole thing was going to be a doddle – how wrong can you be? Nearly every clue after that needed to be winkled out, and even after getting the solution to some of them (notably 7d) I struggled to work out the wordplay. But it was an enjoyable challenge, with some nice surface readings.
DT 25933
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25933
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *
Toughie 148
Toughie No 148 by Kcit
Not as difficult as it looks
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I’m still struggling with the effects of Saturday’s hard drive crash combined with an Internet connection that is varying today from poor to non-existent. Will be back with this puzzle after a trip to the dentist. Can the day get any worse?
Well, I finally managed to get around to this puzzle, and it looked at first as if it was going to be difficult. However, the setter was very kind with all four long answers being anagrams. One or two curiosities, but overall not a bad puzzle.
DT 25932
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25932
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Once more we have an excellent Tuesday puzzle with some very entertaining surface readings. The layout of the grid encourages you to solve one corner at a time, and I was proceeding quite well until I reached the South-East corner which held me up for a while.
Can I point out to new readers (and to regular readers who have not yet read Big Dave’s FAQ!) that the curly brackets associated with each clue are not just there for artistic embellishment – the answer is hidden inside them, and if my hints are insufficient to give you the answer you can reveal it by selecting the space inside the brackets.
DT 25931
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25931
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
One weak one this time round, with a couple of surplus articles, but nothing major to write home about.
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Continue reading “DT 25931”
ST 2484 – Hints
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2484 – Hints
Selected Hints by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I don’t always do this crossword, but if today’s is the standard which we can expect every week then I’ll be doing it regularly in future. I think it is excellent, and when selecting which interesting clues to give hints for, my problem was deciding which ones to leave out, rather than which ones to include. As usual a full analysis will appear next Thursday afternoon – in the meantime feel free to leave a comment, but please do not reveal any answers.