Azed

This was very much a puzzle of two halves for me. I rattled off the left-hand side very quickly, helped by the easy anagram-based clues at 1ac and 1dn, but then stalled somewhat … Read more >>

Nick:  Fairly easy Azed his week, 6/10. There are two ‘gotchas’ if the solver guesses rather than solve the word play, namely 10dn and 26 dn. Across 1. Weekend on British river – one … Read more >>

An unusual grid construction in this week’s Azed gave us rather more 4-letter words than usual, as well as the usual quotient of obsolete, foreign (particularly French) and downright obscure words.  The 4-letter … Read more >>

It’s often said that you know you are right when you complete the last stage of a Listener puzzle properly.  I think the same can be said of the parsing Azed’s clues.  If … Read more >>

I kept an open mind about this but the APRIL FOOL theme was unavoidable — i.e. once the grid was full there was no obvious way to resolve the clashes other than to … Read more >>

The usual thing from Azed: utterly sound clueing and lots of wading through Chambers in search of words you have never heard of, which is quite fun, once you’re used to it. As … Read more >>

Sorry for the late posting. I had completely missed the fact that it was my turn, until Gaufrid gently reminded me this morning, but I was out most of the day so couldn’t … Read more >>

Nick:  Average Azed this week, 7/10 for me. I am not sure about how ‘SA’ in 20dn works (if I am right), nor the definition in 3dn. 31ac is being too clever for it’s … Read more >>

This puzzle marked the fortieth anniversary of the Azed series, a remarkable milestone.  It did not disappoint.  At first glance it looked formidable, with a 13 by 13 grid allowing rather more clues … Read more >>

As ever with Azed, the puzzle gave the solver an opportunity to wander far and wide through the pages of Chambers.  Some of the solutions and parts of wordplay were words that I … Read more >>

I was held up rather badly by the SW corner — all because I hastily opted for ABAFT instead of ABACK (25D).  As a result, the mostly full grid lay fallow on my … Read more >>

The usual experience from Azed — excellent sound stuff. There is one about which I’m not sure: I think my answer is right, but I’m glad that the doubt occurred when I was … Read more >>

I was a little apprehensive when I saw that the blogging cycle had delivered me a jigsaw puzzle, because these tend to need a lot of “cold-solving” of clues before any progress can … Read more >>

Nick:  A toughy from Azed this week, which I give 8/10 on the Azedian hardness scale. As usual for Azed, some good stuff going on (13ac, 4dn, 28dn), but I do feel it’s slightly … Read more >>

I found this puzzle distinctly tougher than usual for a plain Azed.  I didn’t help myself by my error at 26, especially when it seemed to be confirmed by the crossing letter from … Read more >>