Andrew's avatarAndrew

I started off on Everyman in The Observer, and began solving Azed while I was a student at Cambridge (reading maths) shortly after it started. I do the Guardian puzzle most days and others sporadically. In real life I work as a software developer (still in Cambridge), and for non-crossword recreation play the piano and am involved in amateur theatre.

Azed 2250 – “27 Across”

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After the lunch in Wolfson College, Oxford, last Saturday to celebrate number 2250, we were lucky enough to be invited back to Azed’s house (and wonderful garden) for tea and cake. I asked him … Read more >>

Guardian 26,629 – Shed

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I started off slowly on this one (for no obvious reason), but it yielded steadily, making a very enjoyable and satisfying solve. Thanks to Shed.             Across 9. … Read more >>

Guardian 26,620 – Tramp

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Tramp rounds off an excellent, if challenging, week in fine style with a puzzle teeming with references to Alfred Hitchcock and his films, though I think there’s only one place where knowledge of … Read more >>

Guardian 26,606 – Paul

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I romped through most of this fairly quickly, with just a few hold-ups at the end. One word that was new to me, though easy to guess from the cue and crossing letters, … Read more >>

Azed 2244

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A medium-difficulty Azed, I thought – I got through about three-quarters of it with not much trouble, and then took twice as long again to finish it off. Usual remarks about sound, high-quality … Read more >>

Guardian 26,583 – Brummie

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I took a while to get started on this, but then everything quickly fell into place, with just a delay at the end to get the (rather unhelpfully clued, I thought) intersecting pair … Read more >>

Guardian 26,576 – Paul

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I usually don’t have too much trouble with Paul’s puzzles these days, but I found this one hard to get started on, and then hard to finish. Looking back, there’s nothing particularly obscure, … Read more >>

Guardian 26569 – Otterden

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A few nice clues here, including some ingenious “subtractive anagrams”, and a mini-theme around the answer to 25d … … but in general I’m afraid this confirms my opinion of Otterden’s puzzles as … Read more >>

Guardian 26,562 / Chifonie

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Rufus gets a Bank Holiday break and Chifonie steps in from the bench, with a typically straightforward but elegant and well-constructed puzzle. Thanks to Chifonie.             Across 1. … Read more >>

Azed 2238

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After my run of specials, it’s almost a relief to have “just” a Plain Azed to blog. I didn’t get off too lightly, though: I did about three-quarters of this quite quickly and … Read more >>