Observer

Everyman 3320

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True vintage Everyman this week, in my opinion. Not a single word in the solution that required me to check its definition or an obscure place name to stop me in my tracks. … Read more >>

Azed 1980: Jigsaw

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I usually enjoy a jigsaw, because I like the way that progress accelerates once you crack a critical step. In this case, that step was the realisation that, of the two 11-letter solutions, … Read more >>

Azed 1979/amnesia

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I completely forgot about this blog. Gaufrid kindly reminded me yesterday so I promptly forgot again. And then woke up this morning with something niggling my memory. That was about an hour and … Read more >>

Everyman 3318

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Some lovely surfaces and subtleties this week, and a clue type in 12/13 ac which I’m not sure I’ve seen in Everyman before (which is by no means to say that it hasn’t … Read more >>

Azed 1978

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The usual Azed, full of neat and tightly-constructed clues. Across 1 KEKS — keks are trousers and kex is a dry hollow herbaceous stalk 4 POPESHIP — (hopes)* in pip, and the Pope … Read more >>

Azed 1977

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A mostly straightforward puzzle, which I think took me around 40 minutes, with Chambers just used at the end to find the answer to 16D and correct my daft mistake at 23A. This … Read more >>

Everyman 3316

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Pretty nice this week. 10ac I am not sure of the exact correct parsing (I have 2 options which both seem equally likely) but I’m sure someone will clarify. Also I think 6dn … Read more >>

Azed 1976

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Quite a hard puzzle this week, with a lot more unfamiliar words than usual, I think. My favourites clue are 10ac and 22dn for their unusual and confusing – but totally sound – … Read more >>