Comments on: Azed 1921 – Tips for Eightsome Reels

By: Peter Biddlecombe

Peter Biddlecombe — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:11:10 +0000

Well done both. Next stop Carte Blanche.

By: liz

liz — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:44:44 +0000

I finished too. Very satisfying.

By: Simon Harris

Simon Harris — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:59:15 +0000

Thanks, Peter. Your post, combined with extensive goading and jeering from Ciaran of the Guardian team, led me to finish my first ever Azed!

By: liz

liz — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:56:25 +0000

Well, I’m chuffed! I’ve got half of it out now. Thanks again, Peter. Without your tips and encouragement I would have passed this one by.

By: Sidey

Sidey — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:51:59 +0000

Nice set of tips Peter.

As I can remember attempting my first one of these, anyone needing a bit of help or encouragement is welcome to mail me telwogan (at) gmail dot com

By: PaulD

PaulD — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:03:54 +0000

Another tip: Use tracing paper. At some stage you may want to putting some answers down on paper, but, depending on the pattern of those answers, it’s quite possible to put a number of answers in only to find later that they all need reversing.

By: Ali

Ali — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:47:41 +0000

Cheers for the link Colin. I went looking for this puzzle last night after reading Peter’s tips but couldn’t find it!

Have never solved one of these before but seem to remember that one of the first ever Listener puzzles I attempted about 8 years ago used this trick. I got absolutely nowhere with that (had something to do with My Fair Lady I think), but I’ll give this a go. I’m guessing that the clues will be a little easier than a Plain puzzle as there’s an element of cold-solving required here.

By: Peter Biddlecombe

Peter Biddlecombe — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:47:32 +0000

Liz,

I hope you get some more clues as and when you come back to it. Puzzles like this can dent your confidence – I still sometimes struggle with the crucial clues for the code in Playfair puzzles, even though they’re mostly easy. If you haven’t seen a Playfair yet, worry about it when you get there.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:55:30 +0000

As this puzzle doesn't conform to the requirements of the online applet it doesn't appear as the "Latest Azed" on the Guardian's crossword site, last week's continues to appear there. Instead there is a note with a link to the pdf. This link might appear below if I get the tags right. Azed 1921

By: liz

liz — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:11:50 +0000

Thanks for the tips, Peter. I’m on the nursery slopes of Azed here and my heart sank seeing this week’s offering. So far I’ve solved one clue. Will look at your blog again in the cold light of day and see if I can make some inroads. Thanks for a way into the mysteries…