This was a standard competition puzzle from AZED.  None of the entries were particularly difficult to parse.

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A tale of two languages.  I think this is one of the rare occasions in which all is understood (famous last words).  Much credit is due my new shiny iPad with the Chambers app (only $6.99 and well worth it, though I can’t find “Some First Names” in it).

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A rare special on a non-competition day, which was a very pleasant exercise — I don’t remember seeing this type of crossword before and I found solving tricky, not for all the usual reasons but because I kept on having to read the preamble to remind myself of the difference between the Acrosses and the Downs. Much easier to blog than to solve, with all the moving between the two types.

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I found this pretty hard for a plain Azed, with an above-average number of unfamiliar words. I got 10dn and 35ac early on, and found myself working up to the top left corner from there, which doesn’t make for easy solving. There are a couple of clues I can’t fully explain at 14ac and 7dn: better explanations welcome.

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Nick  7/10 for me today, due to the second/third definitions of certain words given in Chambers.

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A mixed bag this week from Azed.  I was able to solve quite a bit on the train (with reference to Chambers when I got home to verify my answers) but I found the last few quite hard going (e.g. JAMBIYAH and YARRAMAN).  Plenty of obscure words as usual, along with some nice surfaces.

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This was a standard plain crossword from Azed.  As usual in an Azed crossword, there were a number of uncommon words, some with Scottish links.  However, I felt that today’s assortment of words were slightly less obscure than has been the case in some previous Azeds that I have blogged.

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Oddly enough my last clue was the one I should have recognized immediately (since I used to live on a kibbutz) — namely, 15A.  On which I think Azed made a slight mistake.   My standard quota of two or so puzzling wordplays to be resolved.

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The usual Azed solve: excellent sound clueing and a large number of words that you never knew existed. Read the rest of this entry »

This was very much a puzzle of two halves for me. I rattled off the left-hand side very quickly, helped by the easy anagram-based clues at 1ac and 1dn, but then stalled somewhat and took much longer to finish the rest. I have doubts about the accuracy of the definitions in 22dn and 26dn – perhaps experts in the subjects concerned could comment.

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Nick:  Fairly easy Azed his week, 6/10.

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An unusual grid construction in this week’s Azed gave us rather more 4-letter words than usual, as well as the usual quotient of obsolete, foreign (particularly French) and downright obscure words.  The 4-letter words are often the most difficult; I initially had TOLL at 11 across, and TOSE held me up for some time.  The only clue where the wordplay has entirely defeated me is at 29 across.  I’ve set out a couple of other quibbles in the text.  Here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s often said that you know you are right when you complete the last stage of a Listener puzzle properly.  I think the same can be said of the parsing Azed’s clues.  If you have doubts about the parsing then you have probably haven’t solved the clue properly.

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I kept an open mind about this but the APRIL FOOL theme was unavoidable — i.e. once the grid was full there was no obvious way to resolve the clashes other than to leave (or remove?) APRIL FOOL.  I suspect we’re meant to leave it – though it would be just as consistent the other way round.

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The usual thing from Azed: utterly sound clueing and lots of wading through Chambers in search of words you have never heard of, which is quite fun, once you’re used to it.

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