Azed No. 2,739 Plain

A pleasant but not a terribly demanding Azed before the trials of next week’s Christmas competition. There are unusually several mistakes, which makes one feel that he’d have benefited from an editor, who could have noticed them. But who’d be Azed’s editor? What he says goes, and it’s amazing that for well over 50 years every week we’ve had a nice crossword with very few mistakes. I shall be surprised if next week we find any, even though it will no doubt be highly complicated.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

Read more >>

Everyman 4,076 by Everyman

Pretty difficult this week I thought — I often solve Everyman when I’m not blogging and it can be far easier than this. Why do I always get the tough ones? The usual Everyman trademarks are there and coloured above. It seemed there were more cases than usual of there being a need for explanation.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, reversal, hidden, homophone etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.

Read more >>

Everyman 4,072 by Everyman

I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this very much. It was incredibly difficult; I used electronic aids quite freely once I became stuck, and some of the clues seemed rather clunky and impenetrable, but that’s probably just my incompetence. No doubt in due course all will be explained. (On the other hand one or two I thought were very good.)

Read more >>

Everyman 4,068 by Everyman

What is now the usual Everyman, with a few tricky clues, but everything sound so far as I could see. Rather too many CDs for my liking. The rhyming pair is highlighted, as are the first letters clue and the self-referential clue.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophones, hidden, anagram, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Read more >>

What is now the usual Everyman, with a few tricky clues, but everything sound so far as I could see. Rather too many CDs for my liking. The rhyming pair is highlighted, as are the first letters clue and the self-referential clue.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophones, hidden, anagram, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Read more >>

Azed No. 2,727 – Plain

A medium-difficulty Azed plain. I was a bit surprised to see two homophone clues: these always excite comment from people whose regional accents don’t make them obvious and Azed has in the past expressed misgivings about using such clues, for just this reason. In my case although I don’t have a regional accent one of them I pronounce differently from what is intended. But never mind; I won’t (like some) make an issue of it: it’s quite obvious what is intended.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

Read more >>

Everyman 4,064 by Everyman

Apart from one or two small criticisms that appear in the blog, this is a good well-constructed crossword. Everyman seems to be paying more attention to the surfaces of his clues nowadays. It’s quite impressive that he manages to produce a pleasant crossword week after week, with all the restrictions that he imposes on himself (the rhyming pairs, the first letters clue, the self-reference).

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, homophone, hidden, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams shown (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.

Read more >>

Azed 2721

Maybe I’ve only just noticed, but Azed’s crosswords nowadays frequently have two or three subtraction clues, as here. These are often quite difficult, and I didn’t find this crossword all that easy, with so many crazy words that had to be looked up in Chambers. But otherwise it was much as usual, with its sound clueing. The doubts I have expressed below may well be down to me, not to Azed.

Definitions in blue, underlined (the rest of the clues are in crimson). Anagram indicators in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(this).

Read more >>

Everyman 4060, Sunday 11 August 2024

What we have come to expect: not perhaps the most exciting surfaces (except for some, particularly 22dn), but plenty of ingenuity shown, and sound clues.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, homophone, hidden, inclusion, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.

Read more >>

Everyman 4056

Nice sound crossword with quite a few double definitions here, I thought — not perhaps too many, though. They are usually easy for the solver because it’s generally pretty obvious what has to be done, and they are often easy for the setter since one only has to find some appropriate synonyms.

Definitions underlined, in crimson. Indicators (homophone, hidden, juxtaposition, etc.) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.

Read more >>

Everyman 4,052

There is much in last Sunday’s blog quoting Alan Connor’s attitude to the difficulty of the Everyman crossword (see, in particular, Shanne@42). It looks as if AC is unaware of the fact that the Everyman has moved far from the entry-level crossword that it used to be. Some of the clues in this puzzle, although perfectly sound, are really quite tricky. Of course there are some which are pretty straightforward, as there should be in any broadsheet crossword, but by no means all of them. The long complete anagrams were often hard to see.  By me, anyway.

There are seven complete anagrams here, so far as I can see, which is a quarter of the clues: quite an achievement. There are also the rhyming answers at 11ac and 20ac (although I can’t see any others). The ‘primarily’ clue, which had always apparently been there, has disappeared: difficulty of setting or a further disregard for the novice solver?

In a blog about a year ago I mentioned that there always seemed to be 28 clues (no criticism at all), and pointed out that the setter saved himself work that way. Someone posted and said that it was sometimes more than 28. I’ve never seen such an Everyman crossword.

Definitions underlined, in crimson. Indicators (homophone, hidden, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Read more >>

Azed No. 2,709 Plain

Most of this was quite routine and the usual satisfactory product, but one or two gave me a lot of trouble. One was a complete mystery until I looked up one of the words, which was new to me. I’m still unsure about one of the others and would welcome explanations, since mine is a bit tenuous.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagrams shown (like this)* or *(like this), depending on where the indicator (in italics) is.

Read more >>

Everyman 4,048

I thought this was very difficult and there was a period of panic when I thought I’d have to give up and ask for help, but eventually one fell, a fairly obvious one really but it defeated me for a long time, and the others were then solvable. It took a long time to get started, but once I had done so everything went in easily enough, until I reached the impasse already described.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, reversal, hidden, anagram etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Read more >>