The usual Azed solve: excellent sound clueing and a large number of words that you never knew existed. Read the rest of this entry »

This was very much a puzzle of two halves for me. I rattled off the left-hand side very quickly, helped by the easy anagram-based clues at 1ac and 1dn, but then stalled somewhat and took much longer to finish the rest. I have doubts about the accuracy of the definitions in 22dn and 26dn – perhaps experts in the subjects concerned could comment.

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Nick:  Fairly easy Azed his week, 6/10.

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An unusual grid construction in this week’s Azed gave us rather more 4-letter words than usual, as well as the usual quotient of obsolete, foreign (particularly French) and downright obscure words.  The 4-letter words are often the most difficult; I initially had TOLL at 11 across, and TOSE held me up for some time.  The only clue where the wordplay has entirely defeated me is at 29 across.  I’ve set out a couple of other quibbles in the text.  Here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s often said that you know you are right when you complete the last stage of a Listener puzzle properly.  I think the same can be said of the parsing Azed’s clues.  If you have doubts about the parsing then you have probably haven’t solved the clue properly.

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I kept an open mind about this but the APRIL FOOL theme was unavoidable — i.e. once the grid was full there was no obvious way to resolve the clashes other than to leave (or remove?) APRIL FOOL.  I suspect we’re meant to leave it – though it would be just as consistent the other way round.

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The usual thing from Azed: utterly sound clueing and lots of wading through Chambers in search of words you have never heard of, which is quite fun, once you’re used to it.

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Sorry for the late posting. I had completely missed the fact that it was my turn, until Gaufrid gently reminded me this morning, but I was out most of the day so couldn’t do it till later. A very “manly” one here, with the amusing swapping of answers and definitions in 1ac and 17ac, and the related steroid at 34a (not to mention a red herring at 17dn). From what I remember it wasn’t too hard on the Azed scale, but of the usual high quality. In view of the lateness I’ve kept commentary to the mimimum. Definitions are uinderlined in the clues below.

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Nick:  Average Azed this week, 7/10 for me.

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This puzzle marked the fortieth anniversary of the Azed series, a remarkable milestone.  It did not disappoint.  At first glance it looked formidable, with a 13 by 13 grid allowing rather more clues than usual, and several apparently being completely unclued.   However, a read through the clues showed that each of the four theme words had two unclued variations which accounted for all the missing clues.

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As ever with Azed, the puzzle gave the solver an opportunity to wander far and wide through the pages of Chambers.  Some of the solutions and parts of wordplay were words that I was familiar with, but I also learnt a number of new words.

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I was held up rather badly by the SW corner — all because I hastily opted for ABAFT instead of ABACK (25D).  As a result, the mostly full grid lay fallow on my desk at work all week — until I remembered the blog this morning (Saturday) – quick trip to the office to retrieve grid to the surprise of the security guard since I was dressed in full weekend regalia (shorts, sandals and unshaven).   As per usual, the BRB proved a rather useful prop.

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The usual experience from Azed — excellent sound stuff. There is one about which I’m not sure: I think my answer is right, but I’m glad that the doubt occurred when I was blogging and not in a clue-setting competition, for my experience is that when one has any clue that one can’t quite parse one tends to be wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

I was a little apprehensive when I saw that the blogging cycle had delivered me a jigsaw puzzle, because these tend to need a lot of “cold-solving” of clues before any progress can be made. Fortunately a combination of some gentle clueing and early success in fitting some answers into the grid meant that it turned out to be not much more difficult than an average non-special Azed, and probably easier than some.

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Nick:  A toughy from Azed this week, which I give 8/10 on the Azedian hardness scale.

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I found this puzzle distinctly tougher than usual for a plain Azed.  I didn’t help myself by my error at 26, especially when it seemed to be confirmed by the crossing letter from 9 down.  Two clues, 33 and 23, have completely baffled me, although I think the answers I give must be correct (with only one unchecked letter each, there’s not much room for doubt).

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This was a fairly typical plain Azed where the parsing is clear after a little bit of thought.  I normally find the surfaces of Azed’s clues to be very smooth, but I did wonder about the surface of some the early Across clues in this puzzle.  

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Another case of forgetting it was my turn.  And then when I did start solving, I found out halfway through I was working on this week’s (2067).  Oh well.  Fortunately 2066 (and all that) was fairly easy for an Azed — though I’ve given up on a wordplay or two. Lots of updates from wisdom of the crowd.  See below.  (In my defense: I solved the puzzle and wrote the blog in about an hour feeling guilty the whole time for being forgetful).

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After the hours I spent on the Christmas crossword two weeks ago, this one came as welcome relief. Not that it was easy: Azed never is, for me at any rate, but this I found no harder than his usual plains.

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Nick:  Quite a lot going on in this Azed christmas special, of which I quite enjoyed completing, and also the challenge to be able to blog it.

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I’m feeling even more well disposed towards Azed (and the Observer) this week than usual, having been fortunate enough to win a prize in one of the weekly competitions recently (still waiting to win a prize in the monthly competition, though).  What was really refreshing was that the booktokens arrived by the Saturday, before the results had even been published!

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You know what you are going to get with Azed – a puzzle that is clued scrupulously with surfaces that make a good deal of sense.    Virtually every word in each clue plays an important part in the wordplay or definition with only a few additonal link words to improve the surface.

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Azed produces these specials on non-competition days from time to time. This is one of his regulars, none the worse for that.

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This was a fairly typical Azed for me, in that I solved about three-quarters of it fairly quickly and without aids (though with plenty of educated guesswork) but took a bit longer on the last few clues. I think there’s a mistake in 4dn.

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