Observer

Azed No. 2,739 Plain

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A pleasant but not a terribly demanding Azed before the trials of next week’s Christmas competition. There are unusually several mistakes, which makes one feel that he’d have benefited from an editor, who could have noticed them. But who’d be Azed’s editor? What he says goes, and it’s amazing that for well over 50 years every week we’ve had a nice crossword with very few mistakes. I shall be surprised if next week we find any, even though it will no doubt be highly complicated.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

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Everyman 4,077/8 December

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A reasonably straightforward Everyman this week, I thought, with some nice misdirections as well as the usual trademark clues. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition cad clue as definition (xxxx)* anagram anagrind … Read more >>

Everyman 4,076 by Everyman

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Pretty difficult this week I thought — I often solve Everyman when I’m not blogging and it can be far easier than this. Why do I always get the tough ones? The usual Everyman trademarks are there and coloured above. It seemed there were more cases than usual of there being a need for explanation.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, reversal, hidden, homophone etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.

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Azed 2737

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It’s competition week for Azed, but it’s just a plain puzzle.  No doubt there will be complex puzzles around Christmas and New Year.       I found this more difficult than many … Read more >>

Azed 2734

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Thanks to Azed for another quality puzzle.   Across 1 GRAITH Scottish dress (old-fashioned) one kept in sanctuary once (6)A (one) in GRITH (sanctuary) 7 YACCA Evergreen causing hard grind for Aussie by … Read more >>

Everyman 4,073/10 November

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I found this week’s puzzle a bit clunky and niggly, with some fairly unconvincing surface readings. Let’s see what everyone else thought. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition cad clue as definition … Read more >>

Everyman 4,072 by Everyman

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I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this very much. It was incredibly difficult; I used electronic aids quite freely once I became stuck, and some of the clues seemed rather clunky and impenetrable, but that’s probably just my incompetence. No doubt in due course all will be explained. (On the other hand one or two I thought were very good.)

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