Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26434
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
We have an entertaining but fairly gentle puzzle today from an unknown setter. Let’s hope that Mr, Mrs or Ms X unmasks himself or herself in a comment. [update – No comment so far from Mr X, but Rufus (see comment #21) has identified him as Anthony Plumb who sets crosswords in the FT under the name Flimsy].
To see an answer highlight the space between the curly brackets under the clue.
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Enigmatic Toughie No 100002 by Elgar
A Perimetrical Jigsaw
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
Hope you’ve all had a grand holiday and are ready for some serious solving. This will probably sit amongst the toughest of the Toughies and features Elgar at his most devious.
If you have never solved a puzzle like this before, don’t be put off. These have been featured in the Guardian as Prize Puzzles about four or five times a year set by the venerable Araucaria. They usually have answers that start with each letter of the alphabet.
The first thing to remember is that although you are solving all of the clues without any checking letters, the clues are in alphabetical order of their answers, so the early clues are likely to begin with A, B or C and the end clues, probably start with letters from T to Z.
To solve this one, I would suggest solving the seven and ten letter clues, which should allow you to place the solutions in the grid. Once the grid is complete, a quotation will appear round the perimeter. In case you are really stuck, the quote will be placed at the end and you can highlight it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26433
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
Rufus is on holiday today, so we have a crossword from a mystery setter. Although I found this more difficult than I would normally expect for a Monday, my enjoyment of it was marred somewhat by what I felt were a few clumsy and forced clues, 17d and 24d for example.
If you cannot work out the answer from the hints, please highlight the space between the curly brackets.
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Toughie No 100002 by Osmosis
Signs of the Times
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I had a bit of a struggle fitting this one in between the roast turkey and the mince pies! An early solve of 8 across is highly desirable as all of the other across clues include a “symbol of 8”.
Just after I started this review, Gnomethang made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and will be writing the hints for the down clues.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 100002 (Hints)
Big Dave’s Christmas Crossword Club
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Merry Christmas – I hope some of you get around to tackling this web-only puzzle.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them.
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Toughie No 482 by Elgar
Seasonal Rhyme Time!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
1 / 27 / 14 / 17 / 19
12 / 21 / 10 / 26 / 4
28 / 8 / 29 / 10 / 18d / 10 / 23
28 / 8 / 15 / 18d / 10 / then / 34
A suitably seasonal offering from Elgar and one which sits comfortably at the tougher end of the scale. However, I was somewhat derailed by the confusing numbering in the clue format and would probably have welcomed seeing the quote as above. Even with the above, there is also a clever little word play which had me flummoxed for a bit! In this review, I have taken the liberty of diverting from the numbering on line and in the paper to explain the lines of the quote.
I suspect that this will divide the regular Toughie solvers somewhat but I would urge you to persevere and admire the way our setter has managed to get virtually the whole verse into the grid. Unfortunately it was used (very differently) in another newspaper puzzle earlier in the week, which gave me a bit of a head start once I’d seen how 1a 27a worked out.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26432
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Rufus told us on Monday that the Christmas Eve puzzle would be by him, and he’s given us a cracker with a seasonal theme and plenty of pies. I look forward to your comments on it.
May I take this opportunity to wish everyone in our extended blogging family (setters, co-bloggers, commenters and lurkers) a Very Happy Christmas.
Much to my surprise (which you will be aware of if you saw the hints earlier) this is a prize puzzle. I’m providing a few hints here and a full review will appear on or after the final date. Please feel free to comment but please don’t reveal any answers or part-answers otherwise the blue pencil may be activated.
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Toughie No 481 by MynoT
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **
I lost interest in this puzzle when I was half-way through it but managed to struggle to the end eventually. At this point I had 3 or 4 tentative answers and several others which I hadn’t fully understood. I have since resolved all of my uncertainties
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26431
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Our mystery setter serves up some Christmas fare today.
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Toughie No 480 by Giovanni
Looking On The Bright Side
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Good morning from a very cold, white Devon, where it looks as though the snow has decided to stick around until next year, but never mind – we’ve got past the shortest day and it can only get better from now on, can’t it?
We have a middle-of-the-road Toughie from Giovanni today, neither too easy nor too difficult (though I had to consult Chambers quite a lot). Let us know how you fared in a comment, and please take the time to click on one of the stars below to register how much you liked it.
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