Toughie No 165 by KciT
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
This is another good Toughie which is not as difficult as some, but is full of well-constructed and entertaining clues.
As Big Dave mentioned in his Toughie review last Friday, we are changing our approach to the Toughie reviews slightly, on the basis that solvers at this level do not need to have every nook and cranny of the wordplay explained. You’ll notice that for some of the more complicated clues I’ve still explained the wordplay in full, whereas for others I’ve just given general hints. I should really appreciate getting feedback as to whether I’ve got the blend right or not. If there is anything that needs further explanation please mention it in a comment and I’ll try to expand on it.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25957
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
What a good week this is turning out to be. Today we have a first class puzzle with some of the best surface reading that I have seen in a daily cryptic for some time. One or two minor quibbles where that surface reading gets in the way of the accuracy of the clue, but when you get quality like this who cares!
Following recent discussions on the difficulty rating I have increased this from two stars to three to compensate for clues like 18 down which, while making us oldies smile, will no doubt cause problems for the younger solvers
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Toughie No 164 by Campbell
A welcome return from this occasional setter
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Some setters appear more often than others on the Toughies and Campbell, known elsewhere as Ascot, is certainly one I would like to see more often. On my usual scale this rated only three stars for difficulty, but I have increased it to four to compensate for some lucky guesses on 1, 15 and 27 across and 9, 14 and 16 down!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25956
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
After last Tuesday’s disappointing puzzle it is good to get a really solid one with some excellent surface readings. In terms of difficulty I would rate this half way between a standard cryptic and a Toughie, so newcomers should not be discouraged if they cannot finish it without assistance.
As usual the answers can be revealed, if required, by selecting the white space between the curly brackets.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25955
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Another Monday and here’s our regular setter to entertain us. A pleasant enough solve with not to much to cause stress. Just the thing to help you clear the Monday morning blues.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25954 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
A good puzzle which, for me, was spoilt by the return of the dreaded place names. Just to make things worse, three of the four are interlinked. As I have previously remarked, if I want a General Knowledge crossword I will do the Telegraph’s excellent Giant GK puzzle. To me it’s a lazy way of filling the grid, and I always have more respect for setters that avoid them.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, I will select a few of the better clues and provide hints for them. Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 18th June.
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Toughie No 163 by Elgar
The Rolls Royce of Toughies!
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BD Rating – Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment *****
How I look forward to alternate Fridays! It took me quite a while to get into the CluedUp site this morning, but it was well worth the wait. The hardest thing about Elgar’s puzzles is not finding the answers (which is difficult at the best of times) but getting a full resolution of the wordplay.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25953
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Up nice and early this morning to try and get this review done before doing some “real” work and what do we find, a CluedUp site that’s up and down like a yoyo, and even when it seems to be up you can’t even log in. How complicated is it to run a web site like this? Anyway enough of the complaints about CluedUp, lets concentrate on the crossword. This was another entertaining Friday crossword. Not too difficult, but not too easy either and as always the crossword is characterised by the carefully crafted clues.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25948 – Review
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A pretty sound puzzle of moderate difficulty. No grid gripes, no geography, no arbitary people. Rejoice! Well, there are some gripes below but it feels like fewer than usual.
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Toughie No 162 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
A fairly ferocious puzzle from Osmosis today and one that pushed me to my solving limits. Most of the clues have excellent surface reading and it is easy to see that the puzzle has been carefully put together. All very clever cluing which took some time and effort to untangle. This is turning out to be a splendid week for the Toughie puzzles.
I’ve tried to explain clues as best as I can, and would welcome youir comments. As usual, the blank bit between the curly brackets can be highlighted to reveal the answer.
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