Month: November 2016

Independent 9,383 / Dac

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Dac is where he belongs this week, occupying the Wednesday compiling slot. I found this particular puzzle to be towards the easy end of the Dac spectrum and made swift progress through it. … Read more >>

Guardian 27,036 / Brendan

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It’s less than a week since Brendan’s last appearance – but I’m certainly not complaining! A puzzle right up my street, based on one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, the 5,24 that superstition … Read more >>

Guardian Quiptic 886 /Anto

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Another Monday, another Quiptic from Anto.         Abbreviations cd  cryptic definition dd  double definition (xxxx)* anagram anagrind = anagram indicator [x] letters removed definitions are underlined Across 8  Banal description … Read more >>

Everyman 3,656

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The usual smooth offering from Everyman today which results in my having little to say. No cryptic definitions, which will no doubt please some people, and only a couple of double definitions, so … Read more >>

AZED 2,317

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There are two typos in this crossword: Edinburgh is spelled Edinburg at 11ac, and 34ac is numbered as 24ac. Obvious mistakes of course, not likely to detain anyone, but when the standard of proof-reading falls like this, if you can’t at first solve a clue then you begin to wonder if there is a typo in it. Not something one normally sees in Azed’s crosswords — how he generally maintains such high standards of accuracy without so far as I know having any sort of crossword editor to pick up on things is impressive.

(I wrote this before discovering that there is a third typo: The first word of the clue for 4dn is meant to be Chain not Cain. And here at last we have a mistake which does actually cause a waste of time (in my case, because I was doing the blog, considerable).)

The usual: sound clueing, impossibly difficult words whose very existence keeps surprising me, one or two excellent clues, and as so often one (4dn) whose explanation is beyond me (at least it was, until the typo was pointed out).

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

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