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 25,321 – Crucible

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An outstandingly entertaining and interesting puzzle by Crucible, celebrating a quatercentenary, to end off an excellent week (I even quite enjoyed the Gordius!). I usually think of Crucible as being at the hard … Read more >>

Guardian 25,307 – Brendan

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It’s been a while since I blogged a Brendan puzzle, so it was a delight to get this – one where every across clue includes the word “queen”, used in various ways, including … Read more >>

Azed 2029

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I finished about three-quarters of this quite quickly and without aids, but finishing it off was a bit more of a struggle. As usual I had to do quite a lot of Chambers-trawling … Read more >>

Guardian 25,287 – Rufus

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The usual straightforward Monday Rufus offering. There are perhaps slightly fewer cryptic definitions than sometimes, and I can’t summon up much enthusiasm for those that there are; I’m also not keen on a … Read more >>

Guardian 25,278 – Chifonie

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I seem to get be getting all the Chifonies lately, and this is another fairly typical specimen, with a large proportion of charade clues, though I found it if anything slightly harder than … Read more >>

Azed 2023

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Another reasonably straightforward Azed, as far as I remember, helped by an easy 1 across to get me started, though as usual a fair bit of Chambers-trawling was needed to confirm all the … Read more >>

Guardian 25,259 – Chifonie

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Typical Chifonie fare here: pleasant enough, and soundly clued, but not much of a challenge, with lots of very obvious clues that wouldn’t be out of place in the Quiptic, and a preponderance … Read more >>