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DT 31235 (Full Review)

by Rahmat Ali  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31235

A full review by Rahmat Ali

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This puzzle was published on 9th May 2026

BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****

Greetings from Kolkata. A nice and straightforward Saturday puzzle from the setter that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback. Continue reading “DT 31235 (Full Review)”

Toughie 3687

by ALP  

Toughie No 3687 by Kcit
Hints and tips by ALP

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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment **/***

Pleasantly straightforward. 1a is arguably the trickiest clue but, having seen “birdwatching” used in a similar way recently, it flew in. Otherwise it will need checkers and/or some lateral thinking. A quintessentially Kcit puzzle, I’d say: all his usual traits are here and I can’t imagine (m)any problems. Still, you’ll be the judge of that! The floor is yours. Continue reading “Toughie 3687”

DT 31238

by Deansleigh  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31238
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh

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BD Rating – Difficulty *  Enjoyment ****

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Wednesday back-pager blog.  I must have tuned into the setter’s wavelength fairly quickly this morning, because I found today’s puzzle to be quite gentle for a Wednesday.  (I even had time to complete today’s Toughie, which is well worth having a go at.)  At one point I thought this was going to be a pangram, but I think it’s three letters short.  Amongst some excellent concise and witty clues, my favourites were the angry Americans in 13a, the suspect material in 17a, and the plus-sized old flame in 4d.  I also liked the Quickie pun.  Many thanks to our setter.

Continue reading “DT 31238”

Toughie 3685

by Whybird  

Toughie No 3685 by Beam
Hints and tips by Whybird

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BD Rating – Difficulty **   – Enjoyment ****

We live in interesting and unusual times, that much is now clear, if it wasn’t already:  Beam on a Tuesday?  Whatever next? Anyway, whatever cosmic upheaval has brought this about, I am delighted that I have finally had the chance to blog one of his puzzles. Beam, initially in his back-page guise, and then in Toughie form, was the first setter whose individual style and craft I really started to understand and appreciate.  Of course, that was back in the day when he was more verbose, with as many as 7 or 8 words a clue…  

Having been working through backlog of Sunday Toughies, some featuring Beam in full-on Tough Toughie mode, I was worried about what I might face here, but he has been kind, whilst still giving us a challenge – notably parsing 5d, which was much harder than the solving part, and almost worth an extra difficulty star alone.  All of the usual suspects are there (royalty, initials, sweethearts), just the innuendo lacking to spare my blushes at breakfast. Amongst many fine clues, I’m giving my prizes to 4d, 9d, 14d, 29a and 30a.  Overall, another masterpiece in concise complexity! Thank you, Beam, for another excellent puzzle.

Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle. 

Continue reading “Toughie 3685”

DT 31236

by Falcon  

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31236

Hints and tips by Falcon

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BD Rating  –  Difficulty * –  Enjoyment ***

Greetings from Ottawa, where spring must be here as the annual Canadian Tulip Festival has begun. We are being honoured this year with a visit by Princess Margriet of the Netherlands. During the Second World War, the Dutch Royal Family took refuge in Ottawa and Princess Margriet was born here (part of the hospital was temporarily declared to be Dutch soil to ensure she had sole Dutch citizenship). As a token of appreciation for providing wartime shelter to the Royal Family as well as for Canada’s lead role in the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of the war, the Netherlands gifted Canada 100,00 tulip bulbs and continues to gift 20,000 tulip bulbs each year. These constitute part of the approximately 1 million tulips in bloom across Ottawa.

The puzzle today is the expected gentle warmup to the week but provides plenty of enjoyment, especially to those who are fond of anagrams and charades. Two weeks ago, the puzzle was set by X-Type and he said he expected to return in May. However, I don’t think this is one of his but I’m not confident enough to risk one of my shiny new King Charles loonies.

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.

Continue reading “DT 31236”