My first Gemelo.
Observer
Everyman 4,109/20 July
Another week, another Everyman, with all the usual trademarks.
Gemelo 2
Gemelo’s second puzzle continues to show his promise as a (partial) successor for Azed.
Gemelo No. 1
I have the honour of blogging Gemelo’s first puzzle in The Observer, and very nice it is too: fairly similar in difficulty to Azed and the clues are so far as I can see sound, with pleasantly convincing surfaces. The only apparent difference from Azed is that two of the answers have all their letters checked, something I don’t remember from Azed.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
Everyman 4,108
A nice crossword from Everyman with all the usual features, which have been coloured. I imagine poor old Everyman every week thinking “what’s a long word or phrase which has the same number of letters as another one and rhymes or has some other connection with it?” and to manage to find a suitable pair is quite impressive. Many thanks to a friend of mine who explained two where I was lost.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, anagram, hidden, reversal, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words — and there aren’t many of them, a sign of good setting — in green.
Everyman 4,107
The puzzle may be found in interactive form at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4107, and as a pdf at https://cdn.observer.co.uk/media/documents/obs.everyman.20250706.pdf.
Azed No. 2,768 plain – competition puzzle
This is the first Azed competition puzzle for which entries may be submitted electronically from within the UK.
Everyman 4,106
Everyman, ‘the crossword world’s entry point since 1945’,
Azed 2767
We have a plain Azed puzzle this week. There is no competition and there are no controversial grid entries that I can see.
Observer puzzles – the future
It appears that The Observer is planning to enable digital submission to their crossword competitions from 6th July for both Azed and Everyman.
Azed No. 2,766 – plain
This grid seemed impenetrable until I managed to get a few crossers established . . .
Everyman 4,105/22 June
Alan Connor continues as the setter of the Everyman under the paper’s new ownership. Another sound puzzle from him here.
Everyman 4,104
I thought this was rather harder than usual, but perhaps that was because I was having dreadful trouble with my mouse. The blog took longer than it usually does. The usual rhyming pair, the self-referential clue and the ‘primarily’ clue are all as usual and coloured in the diagram. Some nice clues, one or two that I don’t understand, and one or two mild criticisms.
Definitions in italics, underlined in crimson. Indicators (homophone, reversal, anagram, missing letter, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Azed No. 2,765 – plain
A plain puzzle from Azed.
Azed 2764
A reasonably quick solve for me on this one, though I raised an eyebrow at the (unnecessary) use of an outdated derogatory term at 4d. Still, thanks to Azed.