A plain puzzle from Azed.
Azed
Azed 2704
A slightly unusual grid, with 90-degree symmetry, and a large cross of bars in the centre that might have tended to break the puzzle into isolated corners, but Azed has avoided this with … Read more >>
Azed No. 2,703 ‘Jigsaw’ – Competition Puzzle
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.
Azed No. 2,702 – Plain
A more than usually tricky puzzle from Azed this week.
Azed 2701
A plain Azed for us to enjoy today. Possibly there will be something different this Easter weekend. The thing that struck me most about this puzzle was the quality of … Read more >>
Azed No. 2,700 Plain
A few flashes of insight finally got me into the groove on this pleasant puzzle . . .
Azed No. 2,699 Plain
A plain Azed puzzle.
Azed 2698
Slightly harder than some recent Plains, I thought, but not too many problems. Thanks to Azed. Across 1 UMBRELLA‑STAND Bit of hall furniture? Broken tumblers land around one (13, 2 words)A in … Read more >>
Azed No. 2,697 – Plain
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)*.
Azed No. 2,696 Plain
A couple of typos appear to have crept in to this week’s puzzle.
Azed 2695 / Give & Take
Azed has given us a non-standard puzzle this week where we have to add or subtract letters to or from the clue answers before entry in the grid. The preamble … Read more >>
Azed No. 2,694 Plain – Competition Puzzle
A friendly offering from Azed this week.
Azed No. 2,693 – Plain
A headscratcher from Azed.
Azed 2692
I found this pretty easy for an Azed, though it took me a while to get the parsing of 15a, and I have a couple of quibbles. Thanks to Azed. Across 1 … Read more >>
Azed No. 2,691 Plain
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.