Posted by Andrew on 25th March 2012
Sorry for the late posting. I had completely missed the fact that it was my turn, until Gaufrid gently reminded me this morning, but I was out most of the day so couldn’t do it till later. A very “manly” one here, with the amusing swapping of answers and definitions in 1ac and 17ac, and the related steroid at 34a (not to mention a red herring at 17dn). From what I remember it wasn’t too hard on the Azed scale, but of the usual high quality. In view of the lateness I’ve kept commentary to the mimimum. Definitions are uinderlined in the clues below.
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Posted by The Trafites on 18th March 2012
Nick: Average Azed this week, 7/10 for me.
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Posted by bridgesong on 11th March 2012
This puzzle marked the fortieth anniversary of the Azed series, a remarkable milestone. It did not disappoint. At first glance it looked formidable, with a 13 by 13 grid allowing rather more clues than usual, and several apparently being completely unclued. However, a read through the clues showed that each of the four theme words had two unclued variations which accounted for all the missing clues.
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Posted by duncanshiell on 4th March 2012
As ever with Azed, the puzzle gave the solver an opportunity to wander far and wide through the pages of Chambers. Some of the solutions and parts of wordplay were words that I was familiar with, but I also learnt a number of new words.
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Posted by ilancaron on 26th February 2012
I was held up rather badly by the SW corner — all because I hastily opted for ABAFT instead of ABACK (25D). As a result, the mostly full grid lay fallow on my desk at work all week — until I remembered the blog this morning (Saturday) – quick trip to the office to retrieve grid to the surprise of the security guard since I was dressed in full weekend regalia (shorts, sandals and unshaven). As per usual, the BRB proved a rather useful prop.
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Posted by John on 19th February 2012
The usual experience from Azed — excellent sound stuff. There is one about which I’m not sure: I think my answer is right, but I’m glad that the doubt occurred when I was blogging and not in a clue-setting competition, for my experience is that when one has any clue that one can’t quite parse one tends to be wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Andrew on 12th February 2012
I was a little apprehensive when I saw that the blogging cycle had delivered me a jigsaw puzzle, because these tend to need a lot of “cold-solving” of clues before any progress can be made. Fortunately a combination of some gentle clueing and early success in fitting some answers into the grid meant that it turned out to be not much more difficult than an average non-special Azed, and probably easier than some.
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Posted by The Trafites on 5th February 2012
Nick: A toughy from Azed this week, which I give 8/10 on the Azedian hardness scale.
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Posted by bridgesong on 29th January 2012
I found this puzzle distinctly tougher than usual for a plain Azed. I didn’t help myself by my error at 26, especially when it seemed to be confirmed by the crossing letter from 9 down. Two clues, 33 and 23, have completely baffled me, although I think the answers I give must be correct (with only one unchecked letter each, there’s not much room for doubt).
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Posted by duncanshiell on 22nd January 2012
This was a fairly typical plain Azed where the parsing is clear after a little bit of thought. I normally find the surfaces of Azed’s clues to be very smooth, but I did wonder about the surface of some the early Across clues in this puzzle.
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Posted by ilancaron on 15th January 2012
Another case of forgetting it was my turn. And then when I did start solving, I found out halfway through I was working on this week’s (2067). Oh well. Fortunately 2066 (and all that) was fairly easy for an Azed — though I’ve given up on a wordplay or two. Lots of updates from wisdom of the crowd. See below. (In my defense: I solved the puzzle and wrote the blog in about an hour feeling guilty the whole time for being forgetful).
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Posted by John on 8th January 2012
After the hours I spent on the Christmas crossword two weeks ago, this one came as welcome relief. Not that it was easy: Azed never is, for me at any rate, but this I found no harder than his usual plains.
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Posted by The Trafites on 1st January 2012
Nick: Quite a lot going on in this Azed christmas special, of which I quite enjoyed completing, and also the challenge to be able to blog it.
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Posted by bridgesong on 18th December 2011
I’m feeling even more well disposed towards Azed (and the Observer) this week than usual, having been fortunate enough to win a prize in one of the weekly competitions recently (still waiting to win a prize in the monthly competition, though). What was really refreshing was that the booktokens arrived by the Saturday, before the results had even been published!
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Posted by duncanshiell on 11th December 2011
You know what you are going to get with Azed – a puzzle that is clued scrupulously with surfaces that make a good deal of sense. Virtually every word in each clue plays an important part in the wordplay or definition with only a few additonal link words to improve the surface.
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