A plain puzzle from Gemelo this week.
Observer
Everyman 4,125/9 November
The usual pleasing cryptic from Everyman. Nothing to frighten the horses, which is as it should be.
Everyman 4,124
I thought this was good but on the hard side for an Everyman and some clues held me up for quite a while. There are the usual Everyman extras which are highlighted in the grid. Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in olive.
Azed 2772
This Observer barred puzzle was published on the first Sunday of November, so under the new arrangements it is set by Azed as a plain competition offering.
Gemelo No. 13 – Plain
Stepping back from last week’s anagrammatic convolutions, this week’s “plain” Gemelo seemed relatively straightforward by comparison. Completion of the grid was helped considerably by solving the four perimeter clues.
Everyman 4,123
The puzzle may be found at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4123 in interactive form, or https://cdn.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/media/documents/obs.everyman.20251026.pdf as a PDF.
Everyman 4,122
A mostly straightforward Sunday stroll last week.
Gemelo No. 12 – For a Change
Special instructions for this puzzle were:
Each clue gives, in any order:
(i) definition of the entry;
(ii) definition of an anagram of the entry;
(iii) wordplay for that anagram
Everyman 4,121/12 October
All the usual trademarks present in this week’s Everyman, accompanied by an apology from me for a slightly late blog.
Gemelo 11
I continue to find Gemelo quite a challenge, and I think this was one of the hardest yet, with several clues taking me a while to parse even after I was confident of … Read more >>
Everyman 4,120
A pleasant Everyman this week.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Azed No. 2,771 plain – competition puzzle
A slightly odd grid in that there are the usual straddling 12-letter answers and sixteen 4-letter ones. But this apart we have a perfectly pleasant crossword with many of the usual nice clues. Sometimes Azed has just relied for difficulty on strange words, it being fairly obvious what is happening in the wordplay, but he is also as one would expect clever from time to time.
Definitions underlined, in crimson. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
Gemelo No. 10 – plain
A plain puzzle from Gemelo this week, but it was by no means straightforward
Everyman 4,119
The puzzle may be found at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4119 (interactive version) and https://cdn.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/media/documents/obs.everyman.20250928.pdf (pdf).
Everyman 4,118
A standard-issue Everyman