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.
If this is your first time, or for more information about this site, please click on Continue reading “Welcome”
A Puzzle by Jaffa
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Continue reading "NTSPP 836"
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31163 (Hints)
The Saturday Crossword Club
(hosted by crypticsue)
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Continue reading “DT 31163 (Hints)”
Toughie No 3636 by Osmosis
Hints and tips by Gazza
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
A typical Osmosis offering containing lots of clever wordplay which I enjoyed. Getting 6d and all the 3-letter answers early gave me a good start. 23a took me longest to parse.
Continue reading “Toughie 3636”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31157
A full review by Rahmat Ali
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This puzzle was published on 7th February 2026
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment *****
Greetings from Kolkata. A full-of-fun and excellent lovely Saturday puzzle from NYDK that I enjoyed solving and subsequently writing a review of the same for your kind perusal and valuable feedback. Continue reading “DT 31157 (Full Review)”
Toughie No 3635 by Dharma
Hints and tips by ALP
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BD Rating – Toughie difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Typically sharp but fair definitions from Dharma with some knotty wordplay. For some reason, I found this slightly harder to break into than usual but once the top fell, it was a brisk-ish solve. All yours.
Continue reading “Toughie 3635”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31161
Hints and Tips by Senf
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BD Rating – Difficulty 2.5* – Enjoyment 4.5*
A very good Thursday morning from Winnipeg where with rising day time temperatures but below zero overnight temperatures we are getting into freeze-thaw cycles.
For me, etc© (I have to say that for Terence), the Master of Brevity has given us a very enjoyable puzzle. The usual one word clues and answers in the Quickie, but only the sweetheart appearing in the back pager with an average of 5.27 words per clue. I hope you have your Crimson Tomes at hand!
Remember that Reading the Hints before commenting can be beneficial!
Continue reading “DT 31161”
Toughie No 3634 by Weatherman
Hints and Tips by crypticsue
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BD Rating – Toughie Difficulty ***/**** – Enjoyment ***
Continue reading “Toughie 3634”
Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31160
Hints and Tips by Deansleigh
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** Enjoyment ****
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Wednesday blog. I found today’s puzzle to be quite tricky, but that may have been because I was still half asleep when I started solving it! A couple of the answers were new to me, and several clues took me a while to parse, pushing my solving time into 3* territory. There were plenty of concise and elegant clues and I found it difficult to pick a winner. I particularly liked the podgy husband in 27a, the binge session in 1d and the tipsy Democrat in 16d, but my favourite today is the naked Beatle in 13a. Many thanks to today’s setter. Continue reading “DT 31160”