Azed

Solving time: 57 minutes A nice friendly monthly puzzle from Azed, with some clever clueing and no need to resort to brain straining themes or devices. I wonder whether indicating hyphenated answers would … Read more >>

This was lots of fun — high-quality clues, as ever, from Azed, with a nice twist to make it even more interesting. Each across clue was for two overlapping words — one was … Read more >>

Solving time 48 mins, no Chambers until grid complete, 2 mistakes (32,33) Don Manley said in a recent comment how glad he was to see Azed returning to this blog, and mentioned the … Read more >>

Some of you will have noticed that we haven’t had many of these lately.  As I write this, I’m checking which of us are happy to write Azed reports.  We already have enough … Read more >>

Apologies for a late Azed report – can’t remember my time for this, or how much I used the big red book – I re-solved from memory after prematurely chucking the original. Across … Read more >>

I actually finished the last couple of words (SOARE and EXORDIA)around 11am on Saturday, so could have made it to the post with this, but I couldn’t quite bear to part with it. The … Read more >>

Solving Time: around an hour and 15 minutes (in two sittings) Azed’s Monthly puzzle for May was a Plain puzzle with a short word to clue. Finding a starting point is sometimes tricky … Read more >>

NUDDY at 12 across brought to mind the lines from Ian Dury’s ‘Reasons to be Cheerful – Part 3: “Something nice to study, phoning up a buddy, being in my nuddy”. The song, … Read more >>

Solving time: 59 minutes, with Chambers used after about 30. Although I finished up with a slightly quicker time, I think I understand why last week’s commenter Ali said they were finding this … Read more >>

Solving time: 64 mins, with Chambers Not sure why this one was substantially harder than the previous week. The problems I remember a week later are finding the beer in 1A, and my … Read more >>

Solving time c. 45 mins in two sittings (without Chambers), but one mistake (or maybe more – see 8D). I’m surprised more crossword setters haven’t had fun with clues for FESTINA LENTE (35A). … Read more >>

When I made an error in a competition puzzle last year, after failing to confirm a guess in Chambers, Azed was kind enough to drop me a note pointing out my ‘lapsus calami’, with … Read more >>

The four longest entries in the puzzle were fairly straightforward, so I got off to a flier. I then attacked the rest of the puzzle, and quickly worked out or guessed most of … Read more >>

This review is brought to you by linxit and colinblackburn. linxit writes… After a good run of completed Azeds earlier in the year I’ve gone through a bit of a bad patch lately, … Read more >>

My first Azed blog, and I kinda left it to the last minute to start solving it (ie last night), but I got there in the end. Typical Azed puzzle, full of obscure … Read more >>