Sorry this blog's a few hours later than normal.
Azed
Azed 2740 – ‘Christmas Playfair’
Several Azed bloggers, myself included, have commented that the appearance of a Playfair puzzle is a scary prospect, as it involved both cold-solving the italicised clues, and deducing the codeword from the answers and the crossing letters.
Azed 2740 – no blog yet
The Azed Christmas puzzle has a stated closing date of 29th December. This is unusual in two ways: first by being a Sunday, and secondly by not giving an extra week, as is … Read more >>
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.
Azed No. 2,738 Plain
Another straightforward plain puzzle from Azed this week.
Azed 2737
It’s competition week for Azed, but it’s just a plain puzzle. No doubt there will be complex puzzles around Christmas and New Year. I found this more difficult than many … Read more >>
Azed No. 2,736 Plain
Apart from a couple of quibbles and one exceptionally clever clue, this solve was mostly straightforward.
Azed No. 2,735 Plain
A fairly straightforward Azed.
Azed 2734
Thanks to Azed for another quality puzzle. Across 1 GRAITH Scottish dress (old-fashioned) one kept in sanctuary once (6)A (one) in GRITH (sanctuary) 7 YACCA Evergreen causing hard grind for Aussie by … Read more >>
Azed No. 2,733 Plain – Competition Puzzle
A reasonably straightforward crossword from Azed today (straightforward that is if you can handle the weird words, something you should be able to do if you have a copy of Chambers to hand).
Azed No. 2,732 – Plain
A 13 x 11 grid this week.
Azed 2731
Azed provides us with a plain puzzle this week. Azed seems to have been scouring the dictionary for alternative spellings this week. I counted six entries that were not … Read more >>
Azed No. 2,730 Plain
Apart from a couple of clues, an uncommonly gentle offering from Azed this week.
Azed No. 2,729 ‘Give & Take’ – Competition Puzzle
A puzzle that requires some “giving” and “taking”.
Azed 2,729 – placeholder
The blog for Azed 2,729 (“Give and Take)” will now appear a week later than normal (October 20) due to the following announcement that is due to appear in the Observer on Sunday, … Read more >>