A plain competition puzzle this month after the intricacies of July’s competition.
Azed
Azed 2199
A plain competition Azed this week. I enjoyed this, especially the two clues where there were two sets of wordplay leading to the entry – SCANDAL SHEETS (34 across) and LIND … Read more >>
Azed 2198/this and this and this and thus
I found this quite hard. Lots of “indirect” clues — where the wordplay requires solving for this. A good example is 33A. Across 1 Twangy instrument I am, bass, kept in box? GU(I’M,B)ARD … Read more >>
AZED 2,197
How Azed produces these grids I just don’t know. He doesn’t so far as I know use technology but compiles them neatly in an exercise book, something that I would find virtually impossible. He sticks comfortably to the Ximenean advice about unchecked letters in words and both grid and clues are full of words that require a close examination of Chambers. Amazing, week after week.
Definitions underlined.
Azed 2196 – “Overlaps”
I knew something special was coming up for this month’s competition, because Azed had mentioned in a previous Slip that constructing this one had caused him some trouble. Not surprising, with what are … Read more >>
AZED No. 2,195 Plain
Nick: A game of two halves this week. The top half of the grid flew in, but then I ground to a halt on the bottom half, taking a few hours to complete it. … Read more >>
AZED 2,194
A routine plain Azed this week, made a little harder if you were using the online version.
Azed 2193
This was a standard plain crossword from Azed with the usual mix of precise cluing and unfamiliar words. I got into this through the two long down clues – CLAPTRAPPERY … Read more >>
Azed 2192/off-by-one
Other than a numbering malfunction in the online edition once it had finally become available after a couple of days (across clue numbers from 29 needed to be incremented which I spent far … Read more >>
AZED 2,191
The usual solid workout from Azed. In his clue-setting competitions, there is an extraordinary preponderance of comp. anags. but in his own crosswords he has apparently only had one or at most two. Until now, and I don’t remember three before.
Definitions underlined.
Azed 2190
A medium-difficulty Azed (for me) this time. As usual, no problems with the excellent clues (apart from a slight eyebrow-raise at 1d), but there were a few mistakes/misprints in both the online and … Read more >>
AZED 2,189
The particular feature of this puzzle presented a problem to your blogger.
AZED 2,188
A French theme to this week’s puzzle.
Azed 2187
A plain competition Azed this week. I found this harder than most Azeds that I have blogged recently and I enjoyed solving it. I can usually get at least half the … Read more >>
Azed 2186/over the top
Relatively gentle for an Azed (i.e. I solved it in about an hour which is fast for me). A couple of uncharacteristic errors — incorrect enumeration at 31A and bad anagram fodder at … Read more >>