Andrew

I started off on Everyman in The Observer, and began solving Azed while I was a student at Cambridge (reading maths) shortly after it started. I do the Guardian puzzle most days and others sporadically. In real life I work as a software developer (still in Cambridge), and for non-crossword recreation play the piano and am involved in amateur theatre.

Azed 1921 – Eightsome Reels

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The scheduled blogger is unavailable, so I’m acting as sub with this rather brief effort. The “Eightsome Reels” idea was invented by Azed and pops up from time to time. Peter has again … Read more >>

Azed 1920 – tough one

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An Azed of above-average difficulty this time, with I think what must be a higher-than-usual proportion of rare and obscure words, though in many cases the woprdplay was helpful in leading to the … Read more >>

Guardian 24,651/Paul

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Either this was a very difficult puzzle, or I just wasn’t on Paul’s wavelength today. It took me ages to get started, and things didn’t get much better even when I’d finally got … Read more >>

Guardian 24,644/Rover

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Fairly typically for Rover (who I think of as a kind of Rufus-lite) this started off quite easily, but was rather spoilt for me by some vague and unsatisfactory cryptic definitions, especially 9ac. … Read more >>

Guardian 24,636/Rufus

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A gentle but enjoyable start to the week from Rufus, with no major hold-ups. I just have a slight doubt about my explanation of 12ac. dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition … Read more >>

Guardian 24,634/Arachne

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A mostly enjoyable and not-difficult-for-a-Friday puzzle. A couple of strange clues with obscure but irrelevant references (10ac, 7dn) and a couple of weaknesses (18ac,9dn) Key: * = anagram < = reverse (no double … Read more >>

Guardian 24,623/Paul

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Not, as I’d expected, a St Valentine’s Day special, but a theme based on famous Belgians, of whom there are supposedly very few, though for its size Belgium in fact does pretty well. … Read more >>

Guardian 24,627/Paul

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As usual, good fun from Paul, with a couple of typically cheeky clues, and not too difficult. One or two minor quibbles, but nothing to complain too much about: in fact there are … Read more >>

Guardian 24,620/Chifonie

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A characteristically straightforward but enjoyable puzzle from Chifonie. There’s just one clue (3dn) where I think things have gone astray, but perhaps others can convince me it’s all right. Key: dd = double … Read more >>

Guardian 24,612/Rufus

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Three Guardian blogs in a row – people will be getting sick of the sight of me! Anyway, a nice gentle Rufus for this snowy morning. I particularly liked 15ac and 27ac for … Read more >>

Guardian 24,605/Brummie

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A tough puzzle from Brummie, with a theme that eluded me for some time. The first thematic answer I got was CLOSE, which made me think they were all cricketers. It was only … Read more >>

Guardian 24,610/Arachne

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A fairly tricky puzzle from Arachne which I’ve been intermittently struggling with all morning in between trying to get some work done. Some nice clues, but I think 4dn is very poor, and … Read more >>

Azed 1911 – filling the gap

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There seems to have been a bit of confusion on the blog scheduling front, with Azed 1911 not having been covered. In the interests of completeness I’ve taken the liberty of producing this … Read more >>