Azed 2354

A plain Azed puzzle for us this time       This was a fairly standard Azed puzzle with precise cluing.  The format of the clues is rarely different from those you find … Read more >>

AZED 2,353

Either I’ve been doing this long enough to actually have improved or… (more likely) this was on the easier end of the Azed spectrum.  In any event, finished this off in about an hour (v. fast for me) without overly abusing Chambers.

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Everyman 3,691

A little more tricky than your average Everyman if my solving time is anything to go by but I’ve no complaints about that. . . Across 1 Much less room sadly for supplementary … Read more >>

AZED 2,352

In a few cases (14ac, 19dn, 25dn, 27dn) Azed has produced clues of the highest quality, clues that would I’m sure be quoted in his own clue-setting competitions, but many of the rest, as is always the case with Azed, are, although perfectly sound and quite pleasant, very simple in their construction and the answers are only difficult to find because they require knowledge of words that are way beyond the ken of the solver on the Clapham omnibus. Which is as it should be. He is not intended to be solved on the C. o.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

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Azed 2351

There seems to be a higher-than-usual proportion of unfamiliar words in this puzzle, but despite that I managed to finish it quite quickly without aids (though a couple of my plausible guesses turned … Read more >>

Everyman 3690/2 July

Another very good puzzle in the Everyman style – that is, at the easier end of the cryptic spectrum. It is all clued clearly, so I have given only brief explanations; but if … Read more >>

Everyman 3,687

Yet again Everyman has produced an accessible puzzle that is ideal for those new, or relatively new, to the art of solving cryptic crosswords. However, I do have one minor reservation. For the … Read more >>

Azed 2348

A plain Azed puzzle this week       The parsing took me a while to suss out this week.  I didn’t get to the bottom of a few clues until well into … Read more >>

Azed 2,347

I’m back again because another stand-in has been needed. On my initial pass through the clues it was a long time before I had my first entry (10dn) but this was quickly followed … Read more >>

Everyman 3686/4 June

The usual good Sunday stuff from Everyman.  Took me a little while to get into this one; then it fell steadily.       Abbreviations cd  cryptic definition dd  double definition (xxxx)*  anagram … Read more >>