Toughie No 405 by Busman
Mon Goose is Cooked
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
The Toughie provides a range of styles and difficulty levels that cater for many tastes and solving abilities. With a Busman puzzle, you know you will get some very fair clues and usually a gentle introduction to the world of the Telegraph Toughie. Today is no exception. But for 10a and 28a, there is nothing here that would not be out of place in one of the more difficult back page cryptic crosswords.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26317
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
I nearly wore out the blue highlighter today! Our mystery setter has compiled an excellent puzzle, without resorting to over-difficult clues. “Please, sir, can I have some more?” as someone once said.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Toughie No 404 by Petitjean
Read My Lips
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
I can’t say that I enjoyed this puzzle a great deal. You have to admire the ingenuity and some of the surface readings are really amusing, but 14 of the 30 clues involve anagrams (with some weird indicators), including two-thirds of the down clues. There’s one clue (7d/8d) where I can’t work out the wordplay, so I hope that someone will be able to explain that one.
Let us know what you thought of it in a comment and please don’t forget to click one of the stars below to show how much you enjoyed it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26316
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another excellent puzzle from the Telegraph’s Wednesday Wizard.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Toughie No 403 by Excalibur
You either love it or hate it!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *
One look at the grid – double unches, isolated corners – and I feared the worst. It was not long before the tooth-sucking began and those suspicions were confirmed.
I offer the wordplay without critique!
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26315
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
We have an entertaining puzzle from Shamus today with some nice deceptions. I’ve given it 4* for difficulty because I was held up in the top right-hand corner. Let us have your thoughts on it in a comment.
As usual, the answers, should you need to see them, are hidden between the brackets under the relevant clues. Just drag your cursor through the white space between the brackets to reveal.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26314
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Normal Monday service, another gentle start to the week from Rufus. Nothing to complain about (except perhaps the double use of chaos as an anagram indicator), nothing to get particularly excited about either.
On another note, I would like to remember Reg Levy DFC (ex C Flight 51 Squadron) who died a week ago, may he rest in peace.
If the hint does not help, the full answer can be found by highlighting the space between the curly brackets.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2548 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 13th August.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26313 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
Don’t forget that you can give your assessment of the puzzle. Five stars if you thought it was great, one if you hated it, four, three or two if it was somewhere in between.
A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 12th August.
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Toughie No 402 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I found this a bit of a struggle. I don’t know why because there’s nothing impossibly obscure in it. I did find it a rather odd puzzle in that I couldn’t decide whether I’d enjoyed it or not.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought. You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.
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