Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31259
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 6th June 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata.… Continue reading
Tag: Crossword
Toughie 3703
Toughie No 3703 by Potoroo
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment *****
What a joy to welcome Potoroo to the jungle party. A fine debut (here) that’s fresh and fun. Nothing too spooky – only 5d needed a spot of time travel (my Geography O level was 100 years ago) but it’s very fairly clued. The floor, as ever, is yours.
EV 1749 (Solution)
DT 31263
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31263
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Thanks to today’s setter for an enjoyable puzzle which provides a step up in difficulty from the earlier ones this week.
Continue reading “DT 31263”
Toughie 3702
Toughie No 3702 by Django
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment ****
DT 31262
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31262
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the midweek back-pager blog. I must have been on the compiler’s wavelength this morning, because I found today’s puzzle to be fairly gentle for a Wednesday. Amongst a plethora of excellent clues today, my favourites were 1a, 3d and 11d. Many thanks to our setter.
Toughie 3701
Toughie No 3701 by Beam
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Well, well! Another Tuesday appearance for King Concision… You wait ages to blog a Beam puzzle, then two come along (almost) at once. That’s all to the good as far as I am concerned! We have three six-word clues, and everything else is even more concise.
I started off at a rate of knots and was starting to wonder whether “Floughie” and “Beam” had ever been linked in a Blog. I should have known better, and the South-west corner, along with 2d put up a valiant fight, the end result being pretty much spot-on for a Tuesday. I have ticks all over the place, notably 2d, 15d, 16d, 18d, 21a and 27a, but I’m giving my Gold Star to 12a. Thanks to Beam for a very enjoyable tussle.
Please accept my apologies for the absence of illustrations and the like. In the short time since competing the puzzle and typing the blog, I’ve started an attack of man-flu or the like, and need to leave it here.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
DT 31260
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31260
Hints and tips by Falcon
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BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from my lakeside retreat near Ottawa, where I expect to spend the day relaxing in the warm sunshine following a cool, rainy weekend.
Today’s puzzle, a gentle mental exercise, eases us into our weekly solving schedule.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Sunday Toughie 228 (Hints)
Sunday Toughie No 228
by Light
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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I found Light at the trickier end of the spectrum last night and quite difficult to select hints.
I have hinted half of 28 clues, with a bonus pic at the end.
I hope you find the checkers to solve this puzzle, but I am going out for lunch to celebrate the eve of a significant date for Nick Rhodes
and myself, and nudges will be sparse until later this evening.
Here we go, Folks…
EV 1750 (Hints)
Enigmatic Variations 1750 (Hints)
Protégées by Vismut
Hints and tips by Phibs
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I felt there was enough in the preamble here to give Claude a fighting chance, so I asked “In a themed crossword puzzle , we are told that the completed grid includes a nickname (13 letters) and the names of three protégées to whom the nickname refers (35 letters in total); the completed grid also contains three ‘study groups, one of which is hanging upside down’, associated with these protegees. What might the theme of the puzzle be?”