Azed

Another occasion when I have to cast my mind back eight days to try and remember how I originally parsed these clues. My recollection is that I had a little difficulty with one … Read more >>

This was definitely from the easy end of the Azed spectrum: I managed to solve all of it except 31ac without recourse to Chambers or other aids (though with some lucky educated guesses). … Read more >>

The preamble said that “The twelve unclued answers (a complete set) have something in common”, andwere given their unchecked (and mutually checked) letters. Twleve unclued answers seemed quite a lot but there was … Read more >>

As well as the usual quota of obscure words, we have what I believe is a first, for Azed anyway, which is a clue entirely written in French (6 down). Perfectly fair, in … Read more >>

An Azed with some nicely challenging clues this week. I managed to complete it without a dictionary, while watching England lose the first ODI at Lord’s — though I did need to double-check … Read more >>

Another wordplay debacle in the SE corner. I had the rest done in an hour or so (The Big Red Book consoling me as needed) — however, I struggled through the bottom-right for … Read more >>

I am always full of admiration for Azed’s grids. Here he has what seems to me to be a great achievement, four twelve-letter words, two next to each other going down the centre … Read more >>

Apologies for the late appearance of this analysis and for the lack of any real comment. I cannot remember too much about this puzzle having completed many more crosswords in the time between … Read more >>

Apologies for the late posting: I’d got my dates confused and only realised I was supposed to be blogging this puzzle just before I had to go out for a few hours. I … Read more >>

“Wrong Number” is a long-standing type of special – I can’t remember whether it was Azed or Ximenes who invented it. Here’s the standard preamble for these puzzles: Each clue contains a one-word … Read more >>

A distinctly Antipodean flavour to this week’s offering, with a couple of pieces of Aussie (or Kiwi) slang, and a Maori word as well. Lots of other unfamiliar words, or unfamiliar meanings of … Read more >>

Apologies for the late posting — this has been an unusually busy week, including the small matter of celebrating an England test victory at Lord’s; I have also been working on information about … Read more >>

Only realized this morning (Friday) that it was my Azed turn this week. A couple of hours of quality time spent with Chambers led to a full grid and a short list of … Read more >>

A very satisfactory Plain Azed with no particular features, merely the  sound clueing that you would expect. Across 1 O F(FISH)LY 7 AMIS — the French for friends 10 REPOUSSAGE — (sea groups)* … Read more >>

My apologies for this being posted later than usual. There appears to have been a problem with the scheduled blog. As with my Azed blog a couple of weeks back, I didn’t know I … Read more >>