Azed

I thought I was off to a good start on this one when I got 1ac straight away, but things got a bit tougher after that, and it took me a couple of … Read more >>

Nick:  My second blog of an AZED competiton puzzle. The preamble: Special instructions: This puzzle marks an unrepeatable occasion, hinted at by the unclued entry at 1 Across (not given in Chambers as … Read more >>

A mixture this week of clever clues  and others made relatively easy by their use of 2 or 3 letter words which regular solvers will quickly have recognised (e.g. 12, 16 and 20 … Read more >>

A mostly straightforward Azed, with a few that held me up for a while and needed to be checked in Chambers (like the definition of ‘office’ in 19a). I didn’t get the wordplay … Read more >>

I note that I totally skipped Azed 2000 — I should probably take a look at it (I’ve been slightly busy).  This one was done over a few days while waiting for long … Read more >>

Azed’s last competition puzzle was (of course, 2000) a special and I’d been expecting a little run of plains, but his specials, although they always take a bit longer than usual, are well … Read more >>

Azed 2005 – Plain This was a pretty straightforward puzzle, done in 40 minutes, with Chambers only used for the last two answers – 26, which I should have got on my own, … Read more >>

Another Azed that I managed to complete almost all of quite quickly without references, though with some educated guesswork based on many years of finding obscure words in Chambers. Still, it’s none the … Read more >>

Nick:  Fairly easy AZED this week – albeit with the usual Scottish words nobody has heard of 🙂 Legend to solution comments: * = anagram. < = word reversed. Across 4. Fool bagging … Read more >>

A fairly easy offering this week, I thought, although there were a couple of four letter words that required some care.  As I have done before, here’s a link to the pdf of … Read more >>

After the challenge of last week, a pretty gentle Azed. This was mostly solvable from the wordplay alone, though I needed Chambers to check a few things. Blogged rather in haste, as I … Read more >>

We all knew this puzzle would be some kind of special, but I doubt many guessed the exact kind correctly. It turned out that two letters had to be removed from the answers … Read more >>

With the exception of one or two answers that are still beyond me, I found this very much the usual Azed, with good sound wordplay. Much wading through Chambers: Azed always seems to … Read more >>

By swapping blog duty with Peter, I think I accidentally managed to avoid Azed 2000 which I suspect will be more than the run-of-the-mill challenge. Across 1 S(PUDDING)IN – initial drilling of a … Read more >>

I found this another reasonably easy Azed – I managed to finish all but a couple of clues in about an hour without using references. Lots of good stuff as always, with the … Read more >>