Azed

Pretty easy but I used the BRB without compunction and there’s a wordplay or two as “exercises for the reader”.  And a little Daily Telegraphism at the top: Dangerous Dan. Across 1 DESPERATE … Read more >>

As always a thoroughly satisfactory crossword from Azed. Quite apart from the quality of the clues, I am always impressed with his grids. More often than not, it seems, he has answers straddling … Read more >>

Having scarcely finished the previous week’s difficult Misprints puzzle before starting on this one I was expecting (hoping for?) a bit of a respite,. and so it proved, with a puzzle that was … Read more >>

Nick:  A very tough ‘Misprints’ puzzle, I thought – it took me about 7 hours of solving. I found this very hard going on the brain (but enjoyable), as not only did you … Read more >>

Another relatively easy puzzle by Azed standards, I thought, although it took me some time to parse all the answers. Two Hebrew terms (both in Chambers) and two French (also in Chambers) along … Read more >>

This was a a fairly standard plain Azed puzzle with his usual high quality cluing.       I was pleasantly surprised by how many clues I solved on the first run through … Read more >>

Harder than usual even for an Azed.  I had to check the BRB for well over half of the answers.  OK I’m lying.  Closer to 80%.  A couple of unsolved wordplays await within. … Read more >>

The usual excellent crossword from Azed and as usual I won’t give detailed descriptions of all the very unusual words, in the knowledge that anyone interested enough in this crossword to look here … Read more >>

Another moderately easy Azed to start the new year, where I was helped by getting the long answer at 1d. Unusually I have a couple of nitpicks (15a and 21d) but apart from … Read more >>

Nick:  Fairly tough today, 8/10. There is a lot going on in the clues, which I think collectively, shows most of the Azed style. Across 1. Stage laugh, reverse of demure, greeting start of … Read more >>

This year Azed’s Christmas puzzle combined an old favourite (although not of all solvers), Printer’s Devilry,  for the across clues, with something entirely new for the down clues. These were normal clues made … Read more >>

Another very sound set of clues from Azed, making full use of the more obscure meanings of words.  You always know where you stand with Azed.  If you feel unhappy with the parsing … Read more >>

I solved this early in the week… but forgot to write up my notes until early this morning.  So I’m regressing to the mean: after a reasonably long spell of decoding all of … Read more >>

Again a lovely sound crossword from Azed. I won’t waste time by copying out Chambers but as usual will confine myself to trying to explain how the clues work, something that wasn’t always … Read more >>

The first thing that struck me about this puzzle was the unusually open grid, with wide open unbarred spaces, especially in the NE and SW corners. The two 13-letter across answers have only … Read more >>