A pleasant Everyman this week.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
John
Azed No. 2,771 plain – competition puzzle
A slightly odd grid in that there are the usual straddling 12-letter answers and sixteen 4-letter ones. But this apart we have a perfectly pleasant crossword with many of the usual nice clues. Sometimes Azed has just relied for difficulty on strange words, it being fairly obvious what is happening in the wordplay, but he is also as one would expect clever from time to time.
Definitions underlined, in crimson. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
Everyman 4,116
A pleasant crossword and all as usual nowadays: the self-referential clue, the first letters clue, the rhyming pair (pairs this time, at a stretch 6ac and 17ac, but I haven’t coloured them), all of which are coloured.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (homophones, reversal, letter deletion, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.
Gemelo No. 6 – plain
Gemelo has settled nicely into his slot. I enjoyed this. No major criticisms and good surfaces, everything sound so far as I can see.
Definitions underlined, in crimson. anagram indicators in italics.
Everyman 4,112
It seems that Everyman is now closer to producing the sort of pleasant sound straightforward crossword that we used to see in the Everyman slot and which had seemed to be things of the past.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, homophone, juxtaposition, reversal, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green,
Gemelo No. 1
I have the honour of blogging Gemelo’s first puzzle in The Observer, and very nice it is too: fairly similar in difficulty to Azed and the clues are so far as I can see sound, with pleasantly convincing surfaces. The only apparent difference from Azed is that two of the answers have all their letters checked, something I don’t remember from Azed.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
Everyman 4,108
A nice crossword from Everyman with all the usual features, which have been coloured. I imagine poor old Everyman every week thinking “what’s a long word or phrase which has the same number of letters as another one and rhymes or has some other connection with it?” and to manage to find a suitable pair is quite impressive. Many thanks to a friend of mine who explained two where I was lost.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, anagram, hidden, reversal, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words — and there aren’t many of them, a sign of good setting — in green.
Everyman 4,104
I thought this was rather harder than usual, but perhaps that was because I was having dreadful trouble with my mouse. The blog took longer than it usually does. The usual rhyming pair, the self-referential clue and the ‘primarily’ clue are all as usual and coloured in the diagram. Some nice clues, one or two that I don’t understand, and one or two mild criticisms.
Definitions in italics, underlined in crimson. Indicators (homophone, reversal, anagram, missing letter, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Azed No. 2,763 plain – competition puzzle
The usual pleasant crossword from Azed. I have one or two slight questions about things but no doubt they will be explained.
Definitions in italics, underlined in crimson. Anagram indicators in italics.
Everyman 4,100
A pleasant crossword this week from Everyman. No great problems and any (only very occasional and slight) grumble is mentioned in the blog. Nearly 30% of the answers are four-letter words, which are often (but not in this case) tricky; not perhaps the best of grids.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophones, of which there were more than usual, reversals, anagrams, first letters, juxtapositions, etc.) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Azed No. 2,757 plain
This will be the last Azed for The Observer under present management, a plain that is probably on the easier side. Let’s hope that his crosswords can continue in their present form.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Anagram indicators in italics.
Everyman crossword No 4,096
I think this is one of Everyman’s better efforts. There are some very nice clues and the surfaces (except for one of them, which I grumble about in the blog) are on the whole tight and sensible.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophones, juxtaposition, missing letters, reversals, anagrams, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Everyman 4,092 by Everyman
A pleasant Everyman, of around medium difficulty in my opinion, except for the odd clue where we are treated to the sort of thing Everyman meets when doing The Listener crossword. All the usual trademarks, which are coloured (in random colours, simply those I thought were prettiest) in the grid.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (anagram, hidden, homophone, insertion, reversal etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Azed No. 2,751 Plain
A pleasant enough crossword from Azed this week, with no major comments to make, except that it has always struck me that his signposting of archaisms/obsolete words might be more consistent. We usually get things like ‘once’, ‘of old’, ‘no longer’ etc, but not always. Chambers tells us that the word is archaic or whatever but we are left to solve the clue without being aware of this.
Definitions underlined, in crimson. Anagram indicators in italics.
Everyman 4,088 by Everyman
Everyman seems to have listened to us, or at any rate to someone, because this is a more straightforward crossword than some of his earlier ones. No major criticisms: perhaps the surfaces could sometimes have been honed a bit, but generally I think it’s pretty good and sound.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (anagram, hidden, homophone, missing letter, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.