Observer

Everyman 3,699

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Having solved the puzzle and written up the parsing, now for the difficult bit, finding something to say in the preamble. As usual the puzzle is nigh on flawless, so no quibbles to … Read more >>

Azed 2360

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A competition puzzle this week, but it is just a plain one.       After I got ALPHABET SOUP at 1 across, a lot of the down entries that fed off it … Read more >>

Everyman 3698/27 August

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  Another typical Sunday offering from Everyman. Carefully constructed and accessible clues, and a chance for me to chunter on about two misuses of my mother tongue.       Abbreviations cd cryptic … Read more >>

AZED 2,359

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Another very enjoyable excursion through the lesser-visited areas of the dictionary led by our expert guide Azed.  Thank you Azed.

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AZED 2,358

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I always err in these Azed blogs on the side of giving rather too little information: anyone who is going to look at them will have a copy of Chambers to hand and will be able to understand the incredibly unusual words both in the answers and in the clues.  the actual parsing is usually fairly simple. Sometimes I forget the definition in the time between doing the puzzle and doing the blog, but once one has given the wordplay the definition is usually obvious.

But what about those people who are new to Azed solving and want to have the clues properly explained? Well to them I say get a copy of Chambers. And if the price puts you off, the version for the smartphone is a fraction of the price and so far as I can see contains basically the whole of the new edition.

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Azed 2357

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In contrast to my usual method of solving Azed over Sunday breakfast, I did this one intermittently while on a walking holiday on Scotland, so it’s hard to tell how its difficulty compares … Read more >>

AZED 2,356 – Payfair

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I had heard of Playfair crosswords but had not seen one before now.  I found Azed’s instructions comprehensive but not very easy to understand so I looked up Playfair on the Web.  Also a few typos have crept back into the on-line PDF which did not help matters.  Fortunately another quick look on the web turned up what has to be done: the clue text for 1, 19, 23 and 37 across needs to be italicised;  the clue for 23 across is wrongly numbered as 22 across;  the letter count for 16 down is 3 not 4.

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Everyman 3,695

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This preamble could well be just a repeat of what I, and others, have been saying for many months. A typical Everyman, smooth surfaces, clear wordplay and definitions, no obscurities, a pleasure to … Read more >>

Everyman 3694

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Pretty much what I and my fellow Everyman bloggers say every Sunday: a well-constructed puzzle with good surface readings, appropriate for the improving solver. Well done, Everyman, for putting out a consistently good … Read more >>