Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2582
A full review by Crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment **/***
Unusually for me, this Sunday puzzle took a long time to finish, and others have subsequently confirmed my view that this was at the hard end of the Virgilius spectrum. I did have particular trouble with 9a and the very sneaky clue of the day that was 21a. Thank you Virgilius for a proper brain workout of a cryptic, my view of which improved as I prepared this review.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26521
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
We have a typical Giovanni today with an entertaining mixture of clues. Let us know what you thought of it in a comment.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26516
A full review by Gnomethang
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
We had a reasonably tricky puzzle this week from our mystery setter with a couple of very good clues, particularly 20 Down. Reviewing this I was struck by the number of charades (word sums) in the puzzle – does anyone else think it was excessive? Continue reading “DT 26516”
Toughie No 541 by Elgar
Hints and tips by Bufo
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment *****
We had been reliably informed that tomorrow was to be an Elgar day and Big Dave had offered to let me swap to Friday this week so that I could wrestle with an Elgar puzzle. I had turned down the offer because of time constraints tomorrow so it was a bit of a surprise to see Elgar appear today. This was a typical Elgar puzzle full of his usual inventiveness (or do I mean deviousness?) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I completed the top half fairly quickly but needed to take a break (to do today’s Times puzzle) before managing to complete the bottom half.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26520
Hints and tips by Big Dave
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
I always do the Quick crossword first on a Thursday to get a hint as to whether or not Ray T is the setter. I knew what I was up against before I started this one, and, rather surprisingly, it took me five minutes longer than today’s Elgar Toughie.
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Toughie No 540 by Beam
A Game of Two Halves
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
I thought that the across clues today were pretty straightforward, but some of the down ones presented more of a problem. But all in all it’s a good puzzle with some excellent clues.
Let us know your views in a comment and please remember to cast your vote by clicking on one of the stars at the bottom.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26519
Hints and tips by pommers
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Hello from sunny Spain where Spring seems to have sprung in the last couple of weeks. Thankfully no panic this week, just the usual Wednesday wizardry (presumably from Jay) which I’m sure you will enjoy as much as I did. There’s a good mix of clues and the usual couple of tricky ones to keep us all on our toes.
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Toughie No 539 by Giovanni
What do you want?
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A very enjoyable puzzle from Giovanni today. I liked the sixties reference, even though it eluded me at first.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26518
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
For once I know who the Tuesday setter is because Shamus told us last week that this would be one of his. Thanks to him for an entertaining puzzle.
If you want to see an answer just highlight the space between the curly brackets under the relevant clue.
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Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26517
Hints and tips by Libellule
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
First of all I would like to thank Gazza for stepping in at short notice last week, it was much appreciated. Crisis is now over and I can return to blogging the Monday crossword. I found this easier than normal and all seemed to fall into place quite quickly. Still good fun though.
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