Never knowingly undersolved
As Geniuses go, this was on the easy side — the preamble was explicit about what needed to be done, and the clues were pretty straightforward. For those who missed the preamble, which … Read more >>
Nick: My first blog on AZED and luckily it was a (fairly!) straight forward plod after the herculean ‘Christmas Parcels’ competition (and what a word to clue to boot!). Some nice words this … Read more >>
This was one of the hardest Azeds that I can remember. I was certainly in need of the additional time allowed, even during a holiday period. I found that I needed to make … Read more >>
A rather nice and gentle end to the year – a couple of seasonal clues/answers and what with the slightly more obscure words being anagramatically clued, this was all pretty straightforward. Across 1 … Read more >>
A solve of two halves for me – all but 25ac and a handful in the SE corner went in very quickly, while the rest took two or three more sessions, a bit … Read more >>
Mostly quite manageable I think, my one stumbling block here was 1ac, which defeated me event with all the checking letters in place. Given what day it is, I had a brief look … Read more >>
Happy New Year, everyone! If I were one for New Year resolutions, one of them might have been ‘I will try to like Rover crosswords more’. I know I’ve used the term ‘mixed … Read more >>
Solving time: about an hour with four mistakes (PROUDHON at 23ac, NKRUMAH at 25ac, CRO-MAGNON at 18dn and HYANNIS at 40dn) The theme here was people who had connections with dates which are … Read more >>
Puzzles 1107 – 1157
A very Happy New Year to one and all. This crossword though was all about Christmas rather than New Year. The combined entry at 2d-7d-5a was taken from Clement C Moore’s poem ‘A … Read more >>
Happy New Year! (he says as he stores up this report on Christmas Eve) This seasonal puzzle had a theme which I guessed from the title – the eight reindeer who pull Santa’s … Read more >>
It’s me again, sorry! Apologies for the late appearance of this analysis but the scheduled blogger resides on the other side of the pond and I wanted to give him time to get … Read more >>
There were 364 puzzles (every day except Christmas Day) in the Indy (including IoS) in 2009. 23 setters appeared. The policy of using themes, Ninas, continued, maybe even intensified. Nmsindy … Read more >>
A clever New Year’s Eve puzzle by Nimrod. Nmsindy solved the clues in 39 mins, then spent another 30 mins trying to puzzle out the unclued ones before surrendering and going to the … Read more >>
A fine end to the Guardian Crossword year with this tricky, clever and amusing puzzle from Paul. The “sums” in the first four across clues are particularly ingenious, but there’s lots more to … Read more >>