Toughie No 3699 by Karla
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty * – Enjoyment ***
Bloggers have to keep their wits about them tackling Karla. Not necessarily because of the wordplay – which is very straightforward today – but because he often hides a subtle Le Carré-flavoured Nina in the grid. Well, I can’t really spot one of those. Perhaps you can? But … there is a four-letter word (plus “set” and, possibly, “it”) running diagonally from the top left corner which, when anagrammed with 1a’s second letter, should/could give you summat. I may, of course, be reaching. I briefly thought, on clocking 14d, that Smiley might be making an appearance, but the last three letters of the crossing 18a don’t quite get you there – unless you play with them. We’ve also got a flurry of names – Enid, Charlie, Juliet, Victor, Seal (possibly), Vogue, Oscar and Cindy – but it’s certainly not a band I recognise! The floor, as ever, is yours.
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Toughie No 3698 by Weatherman
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***** – Enjoyment ***
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31256
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Wednesday back-pager blog. For me, today’s crossword was the hardest of the week so far, with the SE corner the last to fall – for some reason it took me a while to parse 21d and 26a. Amongst my favourite clues today are 10a, 14a, and the aforementioned 21d and 26a once the penny had dropped, but I’m going for 1a as my clue of the day. Many thanks to our setter.
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3370
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 24th May 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Kolkata.… Continue reading
Toughie No 3697 by Dada
Hints and tips by Whybird
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Well this is a genuine Toughie, no worries on that score. I thought the difficulty level was perfectly pitched for a Tuesday. There is plenty of Dada’s characteristic, quirky clueing and if his name hadn’t been plastered across the top of the page, I would have ventured a few small coins on the setter’s identity and been correct for once. 23a piqued my Inner Pedant, 5d gave it a hard poke, and I’ve abraded the top of my head a little trying to parse 25d. 12a made me smile, I liked 14d’s structure, as well as the solution being a great word, but the clear winner of my Gold Star today is the clever, smooth-surfaced 15d. Thanks to Dada for making the Tuesday morning tea work somewhat harder than of late.
Please let us know how you fared and what you thought of the puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31255
Hints and tips by Huntsman
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** Enjoyment ***
The much needed rain with hopefully cooler temperatures has arrived so the prospect of a decent night’s kip a realistic prospect to look forward to.
I found today’s puzzle a good bit trickier than the usual Tuesday fare & for me at least more difficult than yesterday’s offering. It didn’t have the feeling of an Anthony Plumb production but I’m probably wrong so it will be interesting to see what others make of it. Anyway I enjoyed the solve & thought it nicely clued throughout.
As usual there is a selection of music to enjoy or ignore.
In the hints below the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED & the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the Click Here buttons. Please leave a comment below telling us what you thought & how you got on with the puzzle.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31254
Hints and tips by Smylers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ★★ – Enjoyment ★★★★
Welcome to June, and to Monday’s Telegraph crossword. We’re back from a week in Herefordshire to go to the Hay Festival (which is a festival about books, not about hay). Talks enjoyed by various members of the family included those by Susie Dent, Elizabeth Strout, Richard Coles, Ian Hislop, and a couple of Beano writers.
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Sunday Toughie No 227
by Beam
Hints and Tips by Sloop John Bee
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A generous 32 clues from Beam today, all the trademarks are here. I have hinted at 17 clues, so I can give a nudge if needed.
I went a bit 2d OTT with The Who today, but feel free to ignore some or all of the music links.
I was hoping to match Senf’s image of John Halpern/Dada with one of Ray Terrell/Beam but I have failed to find a pic. Maybe you can help.
Here we go, Folks…
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Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3371 (Hints)
Hints and tips by Senf
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A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where last week’s 7 day weather forecast proved to be correct – imagine that! Ponder this, at midnight tonight, just before Flaming June starts, 2026 will be 41.4% complete! Apart from solving crossword puzzles, have you used your time wisely?
For me, and I stress for me,© at last, Dada quite friendly! One long ‘un, seven anagrams (two partials) with some creative indicators (TDS will like those), two lurkers, and one homophone, all in an asymmetric 29 clues; I can’t provide 14½ hints so I am being generous and giving you 15 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid which means you should/might be able to get some of the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!
If it is some time since you read, or if you have never read the instructions in RED below the hints then please consider doing so before commenting today as my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
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