Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26035
A Grumpy Old Man writes……
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
Greetings from the Calder Valley where I have been largely incarcerated in my flat , as the old illness has been playing up. One of the joys of my imprisonment, apart from the chance to get my blood nice and angry watching the Jeremy Kyle Show and other daytime delights, has been that I have been solving (and compiling) quite a few crosswords from all of the national newspapers.
This has left me in a bit of a dilemma about today’s cryptic. While I am sure that a few of you will feel happy about it because you have been able to solve it, I actually feel cheated of a challenge with it. I just felt it was not worthy of its place in a national newspaper. Some of the clues were utterly dreadful and downright unfair. If you are asked to name a little boy, would you think of the answer NAT? An answer worthy of the new BBC2 daytime quiz show Pointless, where the object is to get answers no-one thinks of.
I am not sure who the setter was today but it was almost my fastest Telegraph solve of all time.
Time for you to feel the love.
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Toughie No 216 by Busman
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
This may not have been the most difficult Toughie, but it was very enjoyable. A well written crossword with a number of amusing clues and answers…
Comments appreciated.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26034
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We have another interesting Tuesday puzzle from the setter who likes single-word answers. There’s something of a bird theme in today’s down clues, including one that I’d never heard of.
As usual, the answers, if you want to see them, are hidden inside the curly brackets – just highlight the white space between the brackets to reveal them.
Your comments, as always, are very welcome.
Continue reading “DT 26034”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26033
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The usuall gentle start to the week, ideal for those who are cryptic novices but still enjoyable for the more experienced solvers.
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 26032 – Hints
No whingeing today!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment: ****
I actually enjoyed this one! The best Saturday prize puzzle in a while just about creeps into 3-star difficulty. The only proper noun is a Biblical character who is considerately clued as an anagram.
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 by Tilsit will be published at 12.00 on Thursday, 17th September.
Continue reading “DT 26032 – Hints”
Toughie No 215 by Firefly
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I struggled more than I usually do with a Firefly puzzle despite getting the 4d/16a/18a combination, that is the key to several other clues, very early on. Very enjoyable stuff, with only a few “easy” clues.
Feel free to add your comments.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26031
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Back in the Friday slot, because Gazza is taking a day off and what do we have? Not an overly difficult puzzle today, but a little tricky in places. But otherwise perfectly enjoyable entertainment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26026
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment: **
Tilsit has been unable to do this review, but will be in this slot next week.
Just a few weaker clues in this prize puzzle, but it wouldn’t be Saturday without a boy or a girl – this week it’s a girl!
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Toughie No 214 by Messinae
Messinae Magic!
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A lovely Toughie today, worthy of the title and set by one of my favourite setters Messinae. A nice feeling came over me when I entered the last answer, and I was able to look back on a good fight with the compiler.
As usual, feel free to add your comments afterwards, and don’t forget to add a star rating as well.
Couple of grumbles with the website clues in the Java version. No link between 1a and 10a at 1 across and an apostrophe missed off 8 down, which made the clue look wrong.
Off we go!
Continue reading “Toughie 214”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26030
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Because I’m away tomorrow, Libellule has kindly agreed to swap reviews and he will be doing tomorrow’s. The one he’s missed out on today is pretty straightforward with well-crafted clues but nothing to make you break out in peals of laughter.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets so that you cannot see them accidentally – just select the white space between the brackets if you want to reveal one.
As always we’d love to get comments from you.
Continue reading “DT 26030”