Toughie No 3625 by Hudson
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from a grey, wet, windy Wirral. It is only two weeks since we had a Tuesday Hudson, so I was pleasantly surprised to see his name appear when I opened my slightly damp Dead Tree this morning. However, we have a very different beast today compared with the previous one – still a lot of fun, but a puzzle that I felt would not have been out of place later in the week (not that I am complaining). There are a couple of gimmes to get the ball rolling, but then it is into full-on Toughie territory, with a smattering of GK that needed to be checked. The clues are all fair and clear, even if some of the parsing took a bit of effort (I’m looking at you, 1d and 12a…) and are combined with Hudson’s smooth, narrative (often deceptively so) surfaces. With Honourable Mentions for the Italian hothead, and 17d and 20d, my podium places go to the 14a/18a double act, with 11a on the top step by a nose.
Thank you, Hudson, for a comprehensive, but tasty, stiffener to start the week!
Please let us know how you fared and what you liked about the puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31147
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty * Enjoyment **/***
I confess to feeling a little grouchy today after an indifferent night’s sleep then waking up to this depressingly miserable weather. This may well have something to do with my failure to drum up a great deal of enthusiasm for today’s puzzle. I’ll be interested to see what others think & I hope I’m missing something but it seemed to lack some of the usual sparkle & certainly none of last week’s risqué content.
I see Hudson is on duty over in t’other place so that is bound to be a puzzle worth checking out.
As usual there are an assortment of clips to enjoy or ignore.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED & the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons. Please leave a comment below telling us what you thought & how you got on with the puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31146
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ★★ – Enjoyment ★★★★
Welcome to today’s Telegraph cryptic crossword, which I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. I had planned an intro and a book review, as usual, but the time I’d set aside yesterday evening for typing them I instead spent solving Chris Lancaster’s poignant Toughie — for which I make no apology. If, like me, you aren’t really a Toughie-level solver, I still recommend giving this one a go; with lots of help from Sloop John Bee’s hints (and a little assistance from some letter-matching software), it is possible to get there.
I hope everybody has fun at this website’s Birthday Bash next weekend. Sorry I can’t be with you this year; I shall miss seeing you all. And if you haven’t heard of this, everybody reading this is welcome — click the link in the previous sentence for details.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31145 (Hints)
The Saturday Crossword Club (hosted by crypticsue)
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Toughie No 3624 by Elgar
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Continue reading “Toughie 3624”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31139
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 17th January 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A nice, lovely Saturday puzzle from NYDK that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback. Continue reading “DT 31139 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3623 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ****
Silvanus on a Thursday is always welcome. He’s returned with a typically toothsome number that has only a whisper of GK – money that I needed to spellcheck, a bird (that even I’d heard of!) and a Caribbean island probably better known for its eponymous liqueur. But there’s nothing too outlandish. Fun and fair. All yours.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31143
Hints and Tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***
All the letters of the alphabet except X appear in today’s grid which may point to the identity of our setter. Thanks to him for an enjoyable and not too tricky puzzle.
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Toughie No 3622 by Robyn
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty */** – Enjoyment *****
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