Welcome to Big Dave’s Crossword Blog
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You have reached the world’s biggest and best crossword blog. If you are looking for help with the Daily and Sunday Telegraph cryptic crosswords or the Enigmatic Variations advanced cryptic, a total of 13 puzzles a week, then you have come to the right place.
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Toughie No 3468 by Karla
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Thanks to Karla for an enjoyable puzzle. After failing to notice his Nina in the past I remembered to look this time but failed to find one. Did you do any better? I did notice that there are a number of metals in the grid but not enough, I think, to form a theme.
Continue reading “Toughie 3468”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30905
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 19th April 2025
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Kolkata. A nice, straightforward Saturday puzzle from NYDK that I enjoyed solving and thereafter writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and significant feedback.
Continue reading “DT 30905 (full review)”
Toughie No 3467 by Silvanus
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Silvanus is as enjoyable as always. Many thanks to him.
Continue reading “Toughie 3467”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30909
Hints and tips by Shabbo
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
No prizes for “Guess the Setter” today – most of the hallmarks of RayT are in evidence, including sweetheart at 3d (although he is again teasing us on this one), single word solutions and brevity of clueing in the Cryptic and single word clues and solutions in the Quickie. Don’t waste one of your hard-earned loonies on this one, Senf.
If my arithmetic is correct, Ray has used just one word too many to average five words per clue. Surely we can find just one disposable word in this puzzle…?
In the blog below, the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED and the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the “Click Here” buttons. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on and what you thought of the puzzle. Please also try to be positive – it’s only a bit of fun.
Many thanks to our setter and the DT Crossword Team.
Continue reading “DT 30909”
Toughie No 3466 by Hudson
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty * – Enjoyment *****
The Telegraph Puzzles site asks the question ‘can you crack our hardest crossword?… Continue reading
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30908
Hints and tips by Senf
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BD Rating – Difficulty 2.5* – Enjoyment 4*
A Happy St George’s Day and a very good Wednesday morning from Winnipeg where, on Sunday, we exceeded 20 degrees for the first time since October 20th last year – six months!
For Manders, not a Pink-Footed Goose in sight, about 130kms West of Winnipeg and nowhere near a sea or ocean.

For me, etc (I have to say that for Terence), an entertaining midweek puzzle which could be the work of Twmbarlwm, we haven’t ‘seen’ him for a few weeks, or someone else. Whomsoever it is, thank you.
Continue reading “DT 30908”
Sunday Toughie No 168 by Zandio
Review by
Sloop John Bee
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This puzzle was published on the 13th April 2025
Continue reading “Sunday Toughie 168 (Review)”
Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3312
A full review by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Difficulty */** – Enjoyment ***
Continue reading “ST3312 (Full Review)”