Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2504
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
A pretty straightforward one this, with quite a few unsurprising breakdowns of words. But then I knew the funny word at 27 from years of Times solving, and as mentioned below, this setter is feeding other little bits of Times xwd culture into his Telegraph puzzles, which is fine with me – I’m all for shring the tricks around rather than having parochial specials. As ever from this setter, this easy puzzle has lots of good clue-writing in it and there are good surface readings achieved without resorting to dodgy practices like perverse word ordering.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2504 – Hints
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Once again a highlight of the week, it’s a pity that more people don’t do these Sunday puzzles.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 9th October.
Continue reading “ST 2504 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2503
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
If I were to do only one of the Telegraph’s regular puzzles each week it would be this one. Worth the cost of the newspaper on its own and certainly worth the cost of a week’s subscription to CluedUp
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.
Continue reading “ST 2503 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2502
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A fairly straightforward puzzle, with one very minor possible slip-up by the setter at 26D.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2502 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I was surprised that Peter Biddlecombe thought that last Sunday’s puzzle was quite easy, but then he is a former Times Crossword Champion. I found this one moderately difficult but very enjoyable. I have added a few hints, but I rather expect that some of you may be struggling with a number of these clues.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 25th September.
Continue reading “ST 2502 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2501
After the Lord Mayor’s show?
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
(This is written without looking at the Sunday hints message to see what’s been said so far.) We couldn’t really expect this puzzle to match the anniversary one last week, and we’re back to everyday fare here. There are some fairly easy clues, especially for old hands, but there’s lots of crossword-setting craft – in particular, consistently solid surface meanings. 3D is a particular favourite of mine, being a former distance runner, conjuring up images of someone like Emil Zatopek, whose laboured style can be seen in this film about his rivalry with Alan Mimoun. Meanwhile, back to the clues ….
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2501 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
These Sunday puzzles just keep getting better. This one is somewhere between a standard daily puzzle and a Toughie in terms of difficulty.
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 18th September.
Continue reading “ST 2501 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2500
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
As expected, this puzzle was a bit out of the ordinary. At least in the online version, it was accompanied by a warning message attached to the first across and down clues: “WARNING: Two answers in this special 2500th puzzle require numbers as well as letters. The figure zero must be entered as a capital O.” This spoiled any possible surprise but I guess it was necessary for clarity when completing entries online.
Our Sunday setter specialises in thematic puzzles when writing as Virgilius or Brendan, so it’s no surprise that the thematic element here is handled elegantly – each of the Across rows in the grid has one word in the theme, which is clarified by the clue for 28A.
The thematic stuff led to some strange words elsewhere but solvers seem to have found even the one that’s not a proper English word – or so some of us thought – see below.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2500 – Hints
Selected hints by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We asked for a special crossword for number 2500, and here it is. The best single tip for solving this puzzle is to read the clue for 25 across first, then you will have an idea of the theme and where it is featured. And don’t forget to heed the warning given:
(WARNING: Two answers in this special 2500th puzzle require numbers as well as letters. The figure zero must be entered as a capital O.)
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.
Peter Biddlecombe’s full review of this puzzle will be published at 12.00 on Friday, 11th September.
Continue reading “ST 2500 – Hints”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2499
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
After a few months of the variable delights of the Saturday puzzle, Dave has given me the privilege of writing about the Sunday puzzle in its new style. What a change! Instead of wondering how much to bang on about the clues that annoy me, I’m now trying to make sure I don’t miss any of the very clever aspects of these clues. It seems to be current DT policy not to name the setter for each day, but if this puzzle wasn’t written by Brian Greer (Brendan and Virgilius elsewhere and a former Times xwd editor, now back on their setting team), it’s by someone who’s learned a lot from Brian and other good setters. This puzzle was relatively tricky for Brian – his scrupulously fair clues mean that I can get through some of his puzzles pretty swiftly. I look forward to something with an extra twist to celebrate ST No. 2500 next week.
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