Comments on: Azed 1919 – Azed for beginners

By: Mark Thakkar

Mark Thakkar — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:36:39 +0000

Belated thanks for posting this, Peter – I’ve just noticed it, and will pass it on to the undergrads I’ve been teaching crosswords to this term.

I took a second longer than you, but didn’t use Chambers at all, and as a result (with guesses all over the place) got two answers wrong: GLEY instead of SLEY at 32ac, and PUNIM instead of PANIM at 27dn. I should have been able to get the latter, but didn’t think of PAN-ISLAM. WISLEY is news to me.

By: Ciaran McNulty

Ciaran McNulty — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:24:21 +0000

Thanks Peter, I tackled Azed for a change today and managed to finish it for a change. It has made me think I ought to buy Chambers though!

By: liz

liz — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:47:35 +0000

Thanks Peter. Not simply a useful blog, but a very generous one, I thought.

You are right re HEXENE/HEXANE. I got carried away finding something that seemed to fit the def and forgot about the poet altogether.

By: Peter Biddlecombe

Peter Biddlecombe — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:51:24 +0000

Thanks for confirming that at least one of my target audience found it useful. I’ve reduced the need to remember this article by giving it the “Tips for solvers” tag.

HEXENE/HEXANE is a nasty one – I guess you just spotted HEXENE first from checking letters and confirmed the def. That’s usually enough but nasty things like this can happen. On reflection, -ENE is maybe even more common than -ANE for hydrocarbons.

By: liz

liz — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:03:55 +0000

Thanks for this excellent blog, which I will bookmark for future reference. I used to find Azeds almost impossible but have recently started to enjoy them. This puzzle was the first I have ever managed to complete (leaning heavily Chambers), although I did have HEXENE for HEXANE at 2dn, as a result of not understanding the wordplay.

I agree that these puzzles aren’t necessarily harder than some of the Saturday cryptics — although they certainly seemed that way to me in the beginning. What I have eventually come to understand is that they provide a different sort of satisfaction, fewer ‘aha!’ moments perhaps, but a definite pleasure in the intricacies.

Many thanks again to Peter for providing such a detailed explanation of how these puzzles work. I’m sure I’ll be referring to it often!

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:35:41 +0000

I had a little bit of help with SMAIK through local knowledge. While sike is often credited as a Scottish word, like many other Scottish words it is more generally North British. Sike is common in County Durham, common enough that my house is called Curlew Sike (or Curlew Syke to BT). There’s even the tautological Syke Burn close by.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:54:56 +0000

Another vote of thanks from me for this excellent blog. As Peter says, this was definitely at the easy end of the Azed scale: I did almost all of it in less than half an hour without help from Chambers, with only SMAIK being unguessable and needing a search. I got both 1ac and 1dn early on (definitely working back from FISH for 1dn), which as always was a big help.

It will be interesting to see if any Azed virgins tried this puzzle as a result of Peter’s “have a go” suggestion, and if so how they found it.

By the way, I notice that yet again there are a couple of mistakes in the enumerations in the PDF version of this week’s puzzle (24ac and 31ac), though no mis-numbered clues this time. Also the website has suddenly started describing the Azeds as “set by Plain”.

By: mhl

mhl — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:14:47 +0000

Thanks for this excellent and very useful post, Peter – it’s certainly something I’ll keep bookmarked as a resource for people who think that the Azed is out of their reach. Perhaps you could include these links somewhere, so that people using this as a tutorial in the future can easily find the original puzzle:

[Java applet] http://www.guardian.co.uk/crossword/java/new/0,,-24042,00.html

[PDF version] http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Observer/documents/2009/03/06/1919_mar8.pdf

Your point about how strictly Azed keeps to his rules is very important, I think. I found the puzzles much easier after repeatedly reading the introduction to his A to Z of Crosswords since it enormously cuts down the possible interpretations of the clues.

By: bridgesong

bridgesong — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:46:10 +0000

I echo Colin’s appreciation of this very helpful blog. I often find that I can finish the weekly Azed more quickly than the Saturday prize puzzle in the Guardian. There may be more obscure words, but the barred structure of the grid means that there are fewer unchecked letters, and it is usually possible to work out answers from the wordplay and then confirm them by reference to Chambers.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:02:17 +0000

Thanks for the long and detailed blog, Peter. I decided to give this one a go last night after your post. I didn’t finish it but I did solve all but six answers without Chambers. At that point I would normally have used Bradford’s to tease out the last few answers.

I’d echo some of your comments in that I got this far not through an extensive vocabulary of obscure words but rather an analysis of Azed’s word play and looking at likely word forms. For instance, I pencilled in the LY of 44ac assuming it would be an adverb. I occasionally made mistakes, RIBERY instead of BRIERY (Ribes are currants and gooseberries rather than brambles it turns out, and RIBERY doesn’t exist as a word). I also wrote in CLAVIA instead of CLAVES only corrected when I saw 44ac.

Words such as APTERIUM, WRECKFISH, FENBERRY and KONISCOPES all had fair word play leading to highly probably answers that were usually confirmed by checking letters. For instance, with APTERIUM I knew that words starting with PTER* were related to wings and that gave me half the word for free.

I’d also echo Peter’s sentiment that people give Azed a go, even if you often don’t complete a daily cryptic you can still manage to logically solve most of an Azed and ultimately complete a whole one with a bit of help.