Andrew

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.

Guardian 25,159 – Araucaria

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A moderately tricky Araucaria with some interestingly linked clues and a lot of amusement as always. There are also quite a few of his characteristic liberties, which I’ve noted in the comments below. … Read more >>

Azed 2004

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Another Azed that I managed to complete almost all of quite quickly without references, though with some educated guesswork based on many years of finding obscure words in Chambers. Still, it’s none the … Read more >>

Guardian 25,146 – Auster

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A pretty easy puzzle from Auster (who I don’t think we’ve seen for a while), with a lot of rather obvious charades and anagrams. Pleasant enough, but nothing stands out as particularly notable. … Read more >>

Guardian 25.140 – Crucible

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I found this quite hard (as was yesterday’s Brummie), but there were some easy long anagrams to get started with, and some very nice clues, with 20dn being my favourite, closely followed by … Read more >>

Guardian 25,130 – Arachne

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The kiss of the spiderwoman turned out to be not too severe today, with help from easy clues to the long answers at 1ac and 7dn. There’s some quite devious wordplay, though, that … Read more >>

Guardian 25,123 – Paul

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It’s been a good Guardian week so far, and Paul continues the pattern with this entertaining puzzle. There were a few particularly easy clues to give a good start, and the rest weren’t … Read more >>

Guardian 25,114 – Rufus

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I found this a bit harder to finish than the average Rufus, though looking back there’s nothing particularly difficult about it. There are fewer cryptic definitions than usual; generally lot of nice, if … Read more >>

Azed 1997

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I found this another reasonably easy Azed – I managed to finish all but a couple of clues in about an hour without using references. Lots of good stuff as always, with the … Read more >>

Guardian 25,111 – Araucaria

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My second Araucaria in a row, and quite a tricky one, with some devious wordplay. Some may complain at the theme of girl groups, but I knew all the names involved (apart from … Read more >>