Posted by Andrew on 21st October 2012
A puzzle in the middle of the Azed scale of difficulty, with no particularly involved clue construction, but a few rather obscure references needing lookups in Chambers and elsewhere. As always, quality clueing throughout and a good Sunday workout.
Posted in Azed | 6 Comments »
Posted by The Trafites on 14th October 2012
Nick: For a special, I found this rather easy, so 6/10 for me, but 9/10 for the cleverness. Incidently, this blog took me longer to do than the puzzle 
Posted in Azed | 4 Comments »
Posted by bridgesong on 7th October 2012
Another straightforward puzzle from Azed, with the usual quota of obscure and historic words, necessitating many checks in Chambers. I haven’t attempted to explain the meanings of the answers, just tried to show the wordplay. Here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Azed | 5 Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on 30th September 2012
This seemed to be a standard Azed puzzle with excellent clues and the usual mix of everyday and obscure vocabulary in the grid.
Posted in Azed | 2 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 23rd September 2012
Not so dreadful though dreadfully showed up at least twice as an anagrind. In fact, rather a gentle Azed that, other than all the French and Scots and Spenserisms, is a good introduction to the art form.
Posted in Azed | 6 Comments »
Posted by John on 16th September 2012
As usual an efficient production from Azed. I don’t seem to have said much about a succession of clues where the words in both the clue and the answer are not, to say the least, everyday, but it seems pointless for me to copy out Chambers time and again. One imagines the solver will be armed both with the original and with a copy of Chambers. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Andrew on 9th September 2012
I was wondering whether there might be some kind of special for this, as the first round(ish) number since 2000 and happening to coincide with a competition week, but it turned out to be just a Plain, and a fairly easy one at that, especially after a lucky guess for 1ac got me off to a very good start. Writing up the blog I seem to have put “[x] in [y]” a lot, especially in the down clues: I’m sure it’s unusual for Azed to use the same device so many times in a puzzle, but presumably the words just called out for that treatment. Also rather unusually there are no composite anagrams or &lits.
Posted in Azed | 9 Comments »
Posted by bridgesong on 26th August 2012
An easier than usual puzzle this week, which I completed in just over an hour and a half, although I am still puzzled by the wordplay to 9 down. It’s a 13 by 11 grid, with both the 13 letter clues (at 1 and 34 across) having a classical theme. There were three hidden clues, which always helps, and perhaps fewer unfamiliar words than in your average Azed. Here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle. The printed version had a couple of minor misprints, both to clue numbers, but no real difficulty arose. In the interactive version, there was an error about italicisation. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Azed | 13 Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on 19th August 2012
The preamble stated: "Each couplet contains both a definition (one or more words) and a mixture of the letters (beginning at the beginning or ending at the end of a word in the clue) of the two words indicated by the clue numbers (in the correct order). Both indications of the first word precede both indications of the second. In each case either definition or letter-mixture may come first"
Posted in Azed | 3 Comments »
Posted by ilancaron on 12th August 2012
More than our usual share of compound anagrams — not that I have any statistical justification for claiming that. My BRB is getting the worse for the wear… so I rely more and more on my iPad.
Posted in Azed | 11 Comments »
Posted by John on 5th August 2012
A fairly typical Azed plain; nothing much to say, simply sound clueing of course and one or two rather thin surfaces but many good ones.
Posted in Azed | 9 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 29th July 2012
An Azed from the easy end of the spectrum, with almost entirely straightforward clueing, that I finished off in one shortish session. I don’t usually record these kinds of statistics, but I found I’d solved 14 clues after my first pass through, and 21 after the second, all without recourse to the dictionary. After that it was a fairly quick job to finish off the rest, despite an intial duff guess of DUCKE (C in DUKE) for 28ac. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by bridgesong on 15th July 2012
I found this on the hard side for a plain Azed, certainly harder than last week’s competition puzzle. In that puzzle Azed wrote a clue in French; this puzzle also required a knowledge of French, including one word not to be found in Chambers. Here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Azed | 4 Comments »