Everyman 4,153/24 May

I got back into cryptics twenty years ago by trying the Everyman every Sunday, but didn’t always complete it for quite a time. I do remember the first time I did finish one, and got so excited that I posted it off to try to win the dictionary I already had. Failed on that account, but I’ll always be thankful to the setters of this puzzle, because here I am now blogging it once a month. And still enjoying the solving process.

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Everyman 4,152

All the usual Everyman things are here and indicated (except that I’ve missed one square, which won’t bother you) in the grid. Nice crossword despite a couple about which I’m unsure.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

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Gemelo 33

Apologies for the late arrival of this blog. I’ve been away on holiday and had got my dates muddled up. In the interests of getting it published today I’ve kept the explanations brief: … Read more >>

Azed No. 2,779

A medium-difficulty crossword from Azed. There seemed to me to be lots of answers where the parsing involves an anagram, but now I count them it’s not so excessive (25%).

My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*

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Everyman 4,148

It seems that Everyman is now a solid setter and this is typical of his nice output. Although I am in a little doubt at times there are no weak clues. The usual trademarks are there and indicated by colours in the grid, which has an addition: the long one-word anagram. [I missed one of the rhyming pairs.]

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

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