Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26089
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Tilsit is unable to review today’s puzzle, but he will be back here tomorrow with the Toughie.
When I solved this crossword I quite enjoyed it, but once I sat down to analyse the wordplay I must admit to being less than impressed with a few of the clues. For example most setters try not to use the same indicator twice in a puzzle but here we have “up”, a dubious anagram indicator at the best of times, in two of the across clues.
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. And don’t forget that the answers can be revealed by highlighting the space between the curly brackets.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26088
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
If you’re so minded there’s a lot to complain about in this puzzle – double unches by the bucketload and a plethora of proper nouns, both in the clues and the answers. In spite of all that I have to admit that I quite enjoyed it – it’s an example of how a puzzle does not have to be very difficult to be entertaining. Let us know your thoughts via a comment – as always we appreciate hearing your views, and we extend a special welcome to those leaving a comment for the first time.
As usual the answers are hidden so that you cannot see them accidentally – just highlight the white space inside the curly brackets to reveal them.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26087
Hints and tips by Rishi
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Today Rishi joins us as a guest blogger and he hopes to be with us most Mondays. He will be familiar to followers of Derek Harrison’s Crossword Centre Forum (see the link in the sidebar) and he has also contributed to Fifteensquared. I’m sure you will all welcome him and appreciate looking at today’s puzzle from a different perspective. BD
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I have pleasure in blogging (from Madras that is Chennai, India) on our Monday Maestro’s crossword.
I am familiar with Rufus’s clueing technique from regularly solving his syndicated puzzle that appears in a local paper. I have solved DT crosswords in paperback collections but without knowing the authorship of the puzzles.
I have seen the DT crossword reproduced in a lesser-known upcountry paper but I don’t know if it still appears in it.
The answers below are hidden so that you don’t see them until you want to. Select the white space inside the curly brackets beneath the clue and the answer will unfold itself.
If you disagree with any interpretation of mine, there is the Comments section where you can have your say.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2509
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Quite a tricky Sunday puzzle by current standards – especially if like me you don’t see 1A on first look.
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Toughie No 251 by Notabilis
The right stuff
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
A good, solid and challenging workout from Notabilis, aka Kea, aka a long-established Times setter. I made pretty rapid progress to complete the NW and SE corners, but the other two gave all kinds of trouble. In almost all cases it was down to me not spotting the right things, although one hold-up was due to not knowing the reference at 18dn.
Quality setting throughout, and definitely on the tough side of tough.
Please let us have your comments and questions; and don’t forget the curly brackets contain the answers – left-click and drag the cursor over them and all will be revealed.
In a slight deviation from the norm I’ve shown in blue any clues that rocked my boat. You will no doubt have others.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26085
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
We have a fairly difficult puzzle today with a couple of words new to me, but it’s very fair and entertaining in the usual Giovanni style. If you found this one tricky then I hope the hints help; if you found it a piece of cake, then try today’s Toughie – I guarantee that you won’t find that so easy!
As usual the answers are hidden so that you don’t see them by mistake. To reveal one, select the white space inside the curly brackets beneath the clue.
I think that this is the sort of puzzle that should generate lots of discussion – so let’s go for a good crop of comments!
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26080
A full analysis by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
This prize puzzle turned out to be very popular. It was easy enough for the newer solvers and generated a few smiles among those more experienced. I think the message to Cephas is quite clear – “Please Sir, can we have some more?”
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Toughie No 250 by Shamus
Tough Stuff!
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Very much at the top end of the scale today from Shamus. A puzzle of beautiful construction but some hard-to-parse answers. I was convinced for a while that there might be a faulty anagram at 18 across, but Gazza came to the rescue, and analysed it correctly for me.
Elegant cluemanship as always from Shamus, very much in the Giovanni mould.
As usual, the answers are hidden in between the squiggly brackets. Highlighting them reveals all. You can rate the puzzle using our star system at the end of the blog, and of course have your say and give your opinion after the blog as well. A reminder that first-time posters sometimes take a wee while to appear as they have to be approved, in order to prevent the board being hijacked by spammers.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26084
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Normal service has been resumed. The usual Thursday outing from J. With its typical mix of clue types and complexity. Not too difficult, not too easy, perhaps just right? As such I can’t find anything contentious in this crossword, but perhaps you can?
If you are a first time visitor to the blog you can find the answers by highlighting the space between the curly brackets. As usual please feel free to leave a comment.
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Toughie No 249 by Excalibur
A Game of Two Halves
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment **
I got the impression with this one that some care had been taken in the construction of the across clues, but that many of the down ones appeared forced with poor surface readings. Overall there was not a lot to get excited about. Let us know what you thought via a comment.
As usual the answers are hidden inside the curly brackets. Just select the white space inside the brackets if you want to reveal one.
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