Never knowingly undersolved
In six-and-a-half years of blogging Azed, this is the first time the luck of the draw has brought me a Christmas puzzle. I was a bit apprehensive at the prospect, as some of … Read more >>
Another excellent entry-level puzzle from Everyman, but with a few unusual features, none of which were Christmas-related. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition (xxxx)* anagram anagrind = anagram indicator … Read more >>
My apologies for the late appearance of this post. The scheduled blogger forgot that it was his turn and did not solve the puzzle (I’ll put it down to festive spirit!). Too many … Read more >>
The usual Everyman for me this week.
A plain puzzle for the December competition, although no doubt the Christmas special will be rather more complex.
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3557.
Another fairly straightforward everyman, with a couple of new words and some parsing that escaped me.
This is the last time you will see me for a while unless someone else decides to go on holiday. It is also the first time I have been scheduled to blog an … Read more >>
I often find with Everyman that his references make me go and look up stuff that I kind of knew, but had forgotten. So once I’d finished solving the puzzle this morning I … Read more >>
Scots, Scots and more Scots. Nonetheless, with help from that well-known Scots dictionary, Chambers, managed the slog. Not the most easy of Azed’s but eventually I think I tamed it.
A standard and typically sound and pleasant Plain from Azed this week. Most of the clues allow a very straightforward and brief parsing. One or two of his ways are a bit beyond me, and 8dn is completely beyond me, but I trust someone will explain.
As usual I won’t trouble you with explanations of the rare words: they are all there in Chambers.
Definitions underlined.
Everyman is my usual gentle warm-up early on a Sunday morning before moving on to the likes of Azed, Inquisitor and Beelzebub and today was no exception. Nothing held me up for long … Read more >>
Azed gives us a jigsaw about every two years, and by the luck of the draw I also blogged the last one. As I said then, my first step with these is to … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3553.