Azed

What we get every time with Azed — sound clues and a lot of wading through Chambers. They are always soluble in the end, although 1dn defeats me. I’m sure if this was a competition … Read more >>

As Don Manley pointed out in a comment on Nick’s blog last week, Azed’s sound clueing often means that you can often work out what the answer must be from the wordplay, even … Read more >>

Nick:  Fairly straight forward Azed this week. I found nothing too taxing, although there are some gotcha’s unless the clues are parsed correctly. I also correctly guessed the competition phrase in about 60 … Read more >>

I admit to a slight feeling of trepidation when I opened my Observer last Sunday and noticed that it was a Playfair puzzle, knowing that it was my turn to blog.  It’s almost … Read more >>

Azed, as usual, has given us a master class in precise cluing., where it is always clear when  you have derived the right answer from the wordplay.       There weren’t very … Read more >>

Not sure how hard this actually was since I solved it over several days in between various meetings.   Found TBRB quite useful — understatement of the year. Across 1 GOSS,I,B – a … Read more >>

The usual very pleasant workout from Azed. I always find that I make steady progress and then reach an impasse, when I simply can’t parse one or two of the clues. But they … Read more >>

I found this mostly pretty easy, finishing it (so I thought) without aids in about half an hour, greatly helped by getting the long answers at 1a and 1d early on. Writing up … Read more >>

Nick:  Very tough cluing this week from Azed. 13ac, 31ac, 4dn, 16dn and 27dn caused me a few moments of head scratching trying to parse the clues correctly.   Finally 18ac was a … Read more >>

In this puzzle, which features a 13 by 11 grid, Azed gives us 3 long answers both across and down.  The puzzle also includes a larger than usual number of 4 letter words, … Read more >>

17:30 21 October – corrupted data in the file has been removed – the blog now reads correctly. This was a Carte Blanche Competition Puzzle from Azed where solvers were presented with a … Read more >>

Due to an error in some editions of the Observer last week, the closing date for entries for this puzzle has been extended by a week. As a result, the relevant blog will … Read more >>

I found this somewhat harder than usual fare.  Maybe I was distracted but it took more than a couple of hours to crack. Across 1 APPL(ERING)IE[d] – yes, a type of wormwood I … Read more >>

As always.  It speaks for itself. I know it isn’t Sunday yet, but there is only just over an hour to go, so there shouldn’t be a problem. There won’t be any mail … Read more >>

Definitely one from the hard end of the Azed scale. Starting this last Sunday morning, I failed to solve more than a smattering of clues, so I put it aside and didn’t get … Read more >>