Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26211 – Hints
Big Dave’s Saturday Crossword Club
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The usual few hints to get you started.
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.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. A full review of this puzzle will be published on Thursday, 15th April.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2530
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ****
Four-letter words scuppered me in this one – at 1D I wrongly had SHED when the large number is “shed load”, and at 23D I missed LEFT as one of the possibilities for ?E?T, and gave up with WENT, BELT and RENT all fitting only half of the clue. Both my fault, though helped by a fear/loathing of 4-letter words with common checking letters. Also helped by not realising that one apparent double definition was actually triple.
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Toughie No 333 by Notabilis
Sheer Elegance!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
A terrific end to the week from one of my favourite setters and a puzzle that actually is worthy of the title of Toughie. Some delicious clues to make your mind go into overdrive, but all extremely fair. I also encountered a couple of new words that I was unfamiliar with and needed a check in Chambers to make sure.
If you are around tomorrow, the Saturday website puzzle is one of my own creations and I hope that you’ll all give it a try.
[Tilsit has done this review as Anax is away this week in Italy. BD]
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53.740718-2.012274
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26210
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Absolutely superb stuff from Giovanni today. Some brilliant clues and some real laugh out loud moments.
I have really enjoyed doing this crosword and then writing the blog. I will be back on Monday (I hope) to tackle my first Rufus blog, until then please feel free to leave a comment.
If the hints are not enough to allow you to derive the answer, just highlight the space between the curly brackets!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26205
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another of the new, improved Saturday Prize puzzles. Let us know what you think – too easy?, too hard?, like it?, don’t like it?
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Toughie No 333 by Excalibur
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
A bit of a curate’s egg, this puzzle. Some stuff to be admired, but one or two very poor clues that really drag it back. 12 across is what can only be described as a complex anagram in that as far as I can see, you need to make an anagram of some letters within a word. No instruction to remove letters first, as is normal with this sort of clue. Excalibur certainly has a unique style of her own, which sort of divides the punters here. It’s very much a case of you pays your money……
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26209
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Libellule has moved, from next week, to take on Rufus every Monday.
Thursday is our mystery day and, unsurprisingly, no setter has owned up to any of these mundane puzzles! This one does has one or two better clues, 17 across for example.
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 332 by Giovanni
A Blast from the Past
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
You need to be of a certain age to remember some of the references in this puzzle. We have a U.S. statesman from the 1960s and a cricketer who played his last test match in 1961. This certainly qualified as a Toughie in terms of difficulty, but it was a bit disappointing for a Giovanni, with a scarcity of “Aha” moments and some less than smooth surface readings.
As always we like to hear your views – please take the time to leave a comment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26208
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Another Wednesday, another pleasant puzzle from our regular setter. As usual, there’s not too much in the way of awkward stuff but there are one of two things to make you think a little.
As usual, have your say after the analysis. The answers are contained inside the curly brackets after each clue and can be highlighted to reveal the solution. You can also click in the stars after the blog to give your verdict on the puzzle.
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53.740718-2.012274
Toughie No 331 by Shamus
An upper-class puzzle!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A very enjoyable puzzle from Shamus to start this week’s Toughies. Knowledge of real British and fictional Danish Royalty will come in handy today, along with a smattering of Geography and History.
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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