My first Azed puzzle as a regular blogger entailing a very enjoyable trawl though Chambers. The great thing about blogging an Azed puzzle is that it gives me the perfect excuse to spend the afternoon reading the dictionary without attracting unwelcome comments about ‘needing to get a life’ etc. Thank you Azed.
Month: August 2014
Independent Crossword 8680 by Anax (09-08-2014)
As the warm British summer threatens to come to and end, it’s time for another duel with Anax which takes ones mind of the atrocities going on around the world. Always an enjoyable … Read more >>
Guardian 26,334 / Paul
As ever a very entertaining crossword from Paul. This wasn’t a difficult solve, but great fun. My favourite clues were 23a,26a and 13a, which are both excellent. The only slight oddity here was … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations No. 1133: Peripheral Consequences by Jaques
A smaller than average grid and a longer than average preamble greeted us this week. In fact, close reading of the preamble told us that the grid had a perimeter which needed filling … Read more >>
Financial Times 14,701 by GAFF
A sharp intake of breath preceded the whitening of the knuckles, as I gripped the arms of my chair in sheer trepidation at seeing the name of the setter today. And so it happened, the tussle with my nemesis Gaff. And at the end of it all, I can (barely) stand up and aver that I fought like a man, relentless in the face of a barrage of one inscrutable clue after another.
Guardian 26,339 / Paul
I’m going to repeat what I said in the preamble to my last blog of a Paul puzzle, a couple of weeks ago – that it was a bit of a mixture, with … Read more >>
Independent 8685 / Phi
Thanks Phi for our usual Phi-day phun! The enumeration helped enormously for 1/4/7/13/18. Mind you, whenever we see TAR in a crossword we always think of SAILOR – so that helped … Read more >>
Independent 8,684 / Morph
The Thursday slot, home to a wide variety of compilers, is hosting Morph’s latest offering today. I found this puzzle quite a challenge, and after an initial flurry of ten or so clues, … Read more >>
Financial Times no.14,700 by Wanderer
I enjoyed this, and – with one maddening exception – was able to make sense of it without too much trouble.
Guardian 26,338 by Brummie
Found this very difficult, and in the end had to guess-then-Google a couple of unfamiliar words…
Financial Times 14,691 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword/Aug 4 A familiar Monday solve. Only a couple of the cryptic definitions in the mid-east held me up (but not for too long). 23ac was a new word to me, … Read more >>
Financial Times 14,690 by Mudd
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 2, 2014 I made my way quickly through this puzzle. Only 5d gave me a little trouble. My top clues are 1a (SEMI-PRECIOUS), 13a (GLADIOLI) … Read more >>
Financial Times14,699 / Monk
I had a premonition yesterday evening that it was going to be Monk today so I was glad that I had agreed to stand in for PeeDee again today as he is one … Read more >>
Independent 8683 / Dac
Another Wednesday, another puzzle from Dac I made fairly steady progress solving this. The two most obscure words for me today were FASTBACK (1 across) and BUTTERY (3 down in … Read more >>
Guardian 26,337 – Crucible
An enjoyable puzzle from Crucible that wasn’t too hard once I spotted the theme (even though I didn’t get the linking word at 9d until quite late on). A couple of slightly obscure … Read more >>