Azed No. 2,655 ‘Printer’s Devilry’ – Competition Puzzle

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Azed produces these every year or two and they are very clever and great fun, but when I saw that it was a P.D. my heart sank, as they take me a long time to do and I wasn’t sure that I’d finish in time. However, having done several of these over the years I’m probably finding them easier. Why it should be that they appeal to the majority of solvers goodness knows, but they do, and the names of the prizewinners in Azed’s lists are much the same names as in his regular crosswords. They divide opinion a bit, and a few don’t like them at all. Personally I enjoy them despite their difficulty: the moment of realisation when what was a slightly clunky and incomprehensible sentence reveals itself is very nice.

The instructions I find pretty incomprehensible and it’s only by learning from various other sources that I know what to do. Why Azed bothers to say ‘Preference is given to…’ I can’t understand, since all the clues that I’ve ever seen quoted have been ‘correct’. Should he not make it a rule?

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