Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25963
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A pleasant puzzle that didn’t overly exercise the brain cells. Continue reading “DT 25963”
Tag: Solutions
Toughie 168
Toughie No 168 by Warbler
Can this really be a Toughie?
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment **
When I saw that Warbler was today’s setter I looked forward to a difficult puzzle. What I got was one that was, to me, easier than most of the regular daily cryptics. Just as Gazza vacillated between 3 and 4 stars for today’s cryptic (I had that as a 2 star!) I rounded this one up to 2 stars. Let me know what you think.
DT 25962
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25962
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Another Tuesday and another fine puzzle, full of well crafted clues. After last week’s debate on how difficult the puzzle was I’ll be interested to see how people react to this one – I vacillated between three and four stars but eventually plumped for three.
DT 25961
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25961
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
I am sorry to have to tell you that Tilsit is back in hospital, so I’ve had to do this in a bit of a rush. Very much a typical start to the week from out “Monday Maestro”, but just about into three-star difficulty.
ST 2488 – Review
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2488 – Review
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Our new Sunday setter is now so well established that the old-style puzzles are becoming an ever-dimming memory.
Toughie 167
Toughie No 167 by Excalibur
More of the same
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
My dislike of puzzles from this setter is well-known, so I will let you decide for yourself. I wonder if visitors to the Excalibur household are asked “Tea, a cup of, would like you?”.
DT 25959
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25959
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Not as complicated today, although the grid was a bit “cornery”, there are some nice “gimme” clues available in all corners to get you started. For example 2d, 7d, 24a, and 12d. Mind you it still deserves three stars because after that you still have to tease out the other answers.
DT 25954 – Review
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25954 – back into the atlas
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Decent grid, harder clues than usual for me – say 50% longer than a typical Saturday timing. Quite a few place-names, though I’d only count one as difficult. Last few answers in approx order for me: 11, 8, 1A, 5, 2, 4. (Dave says I should put A or D next to all the numbers, but I’m too good at choosing the wrong one and generating “You did really mean 8A didn’t you?” comments. So no letters from me except where they’re essential. Tough answer words or wordplay elements were: 8 (medlar), 11, 5, 23. Most of the clues were good, but some really let the side down.
Toughie 166
Toughie No 166 by Shamus
Hints and tips by Tilsit
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
A fairly entertaining challenge from Shamus, who always provides puzzles that are both fair and a reasonable test for solvers. I have to say I found this one a little easier than his usual challenges, but it did contaion things that made me reach for the Chambers.
Shamus is one of Azed’s band of solvers from the Observer every Sunday, and regularly appears in the prize winners for his monthly clue writing competition. Solvers may be interested to know that another of Azed’s band of regulars sadly passed away the other day. Dorothy Taylor, who was 98, had a rather particular claim to fame. Dorothy used to enter puzzles under her sister’s name Mrs B Lewis and her name was used, along with that of another eminent solver, Sir Jeremy Morse, by Colin Dexter, himself a regular Azed prizewinner. And so Morse and Lewis became famous.
[You can see a picture of Dorothy, with Sir Jeremy, in this post on Derek Harrison’s Crossword Message Board. The following entry in the same thread has a picture of her with Colin Dexter and Don (Giovanni) Manley . BD]
DT 25958
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 25958
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
This is a workmanlike puzzle which should not cause too much aggravation. When starting out with a blank grid it’s always nice to find a few clues that offer you an easy “way in”, and we have several here such as 12a, 24a and 5d.
As usual the answers are inside the curly brackets – just select the white space inside the brackets to reveal them.