AZED 2,185

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The usual Azed, where the wordplay is so precise that you can often be pretty sure of the answers without knowing the words. I solved most of this when away for the weekend and came home with many unknown words written by the clues but not yet in the grid, ready for me to look them up in Chambers.

I thought that 19dn was very good, but my godson had a point when he opined that the ‘e.g.’ takes away from the surface reading. However, Azed (but not all setters, including some in The Times) clearly abhors a definition by example. And rightly so in my opinion.

Definitions in italics.

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Guardian 26,238 / Maskarade

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I think this is the first time I’ve come up in the rotation to write the blog post about a big bank holiday puzzle, which is quite exciting. This was a themed puzzle … Read more >>

Financial Times 14,605 by BRADMAN

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Tough day at work today so wasnt really in the right frame of mind to attack this puzzle. Nearly gave up before gutting it out. Thanks to Bradman for an excellent workout – I really loved doing this despite my less-than-ok frame of mind.

I had to get help from the internet for 7d but otherwise it was smooth sailing. Did need some assistance with parsing some clues though, which Geoff kindly helped with.

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Financial Times 14,596 – Crux

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Monday Prize Crossword/Apr 14 Pleasant Monday morning entertainment from Crux, mostly quite easy although the SE forced me to use some major braincells. Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate. Across 1 TETHER … Read more >>

Financial Times 14,595 by Mudd

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Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 12, 2014 A fairly run-of-the-mill puzzle this time. My favourite clues are 16a (PILATES), 29a (GREENE) and 7d (TEA CLOTH). ACROSS 1 Pointer points, showing … Read more >>