John

Born 1946. Since retiring (maths teacher) have spent an increasing amount of time on crosswords, something that was impossible before – am not in the sub-ten minutes league and probably never will be. Do The Times every day (more often than not in over half an hour), also an assortment of other puzzles. Have been doing Azed monthly for some years and entering his clue-setting competitions, occasionally with some success (I even won once, have had 36 VHCs and 138 HCs — yes, I keep a record, sad isn't it) but not enough for my liking. I've set a few crosswords: five in Oxford Today, a few on Derek Harrison's website, and five in The Independent, under the name Vernon. Also play a lot of chess and golf, although as I age I'm getting weaker at both.

Azed 2721

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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).

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Everyman 4060, Sunday 11 August 2024

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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.

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Everyman 4056

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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.

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Everyman 4,052

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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.

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Azed No. 2,709 Plain

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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.

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Everyman 4,048

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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.

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Azed No. 2,703 ‘Jigsaw’ – Competition Puzzle

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How complicated this all is. It took me ages. I drew the grid on a piece of squared paper and armed myself with a pencil, not the usual pen, then started by solving as many of the clues as possible. Since I got two of the ten-letter answers I took a punt and pencilled them in at right angles to each other — there was a letter that fit both words where they crossed. Then I tentatively added the answers that I had and went on until things went wrong. For the second time I was lucky and the only wrong positioning quickly led to a dead end, and I could retrace my steps. I went on and on and to my surprise it all worked out OK, although I was very fortunate: similar such things have in the past led me to start all over again.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

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Azed No. 2,697 – Plain

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A pleasant and not too difficult crossword from Azed. I got into a bit of a mess with the software that produces the blog (which was thrown by the strange enumeration at 1ac), but with some help from the writer of the software and a little fiddling I think it’s now in an acceptable form. Some of the anagram indicators are a bit extreme, but Azed basically allows anything where there is a little bit of jiggling.

Definitions in crimson, underlined; anagram indicators in italics; anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.

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Everyman 4,036

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When I’m not blogging I sometimes miss The Everyman, but when I did it a week or two ago it seemed to be becoming easier, and I wondered if Alan Connor was deliberately making it so in response to the several remarks that this was no longer an entry-level crossword. However, this one has shown that this is not apparently the case, because I thought this was very tricky and I’m still not sure of the parsing of one or two of the clues. I couldn’t find the usual rhyming pair or much of that type; two answers ended with the same three letters although they didn’t rhyme, and I’ve highlighted them in a rather doubtful grey, not the usual flamboyant colours which announce a discovery.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (Hidden, anagrams, homophones, insertion, reversal, etc.) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

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Everyman 4,032

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A sound and good crossword from Everyman. Long ago the idea of this being an entry level crossword seems to have been abandoned and some of the clues, like 1ac, are rather tricky. But it all seems to be sound, and one could argue that that is more important. 3dn and 7dn are a rhyming pair (I can’t find any others) and there are the usual self-referential and first letters clues.

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

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Azed No. 2,691 Plain

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It’s always a relief when blogging duty coincides with an Azed plain, because his specials, which are especially good, always take me ages to do. I admire his grid construction: OK some of the words are pretty wild, but they are all there in Chambers so far as I can see, and to fit words into a 12×12 grid where there are four 11-letter words abutting each other in pairs seems brilliant. 5 and 8dn are presenting problems, which I’m sure will be explained to me.

Definitions underlined in crimson. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(this), with their indicators in italics.

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Everyman 4,028

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The standard of these clues seems to me to be pretty high nowadays. Where I take issue with Everyman is in his use of question marks: he doesn’t always use them when he should, and he sometimes uses them pointlessly. There are several clues where the answer is a complete anagram of words in the clue. Very clever, but is the device overused? 3dn and 12dn are I think the pair, in that one begins with ‘Old’ and the other with ‘New’. 1dn is the self-referential clue and 22dn is the first letters clue.

Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (hidden, homophone, anagram, reversal etc.) in italics. Anagrams shown (like this)* or *(like this) [yes you’re right of course, Tony Collman@27]. Link-words in green.

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