Never knowingly undersolved
We have a plain puzzle from Azed this week I thought this a puzzle towards the easier end of Azed’s spectrum with quite a few entries that would be … Read more >>
This is the first ‘Cherchez la Femme’ since Azed 2,515 on August 22, 2020, which was one of the first few Azed puzzles that I ever attempted, and the first Azed “special” that I completed, so it is a particular treat for this to have come up on my turn at the blog.
A typical Azed plain.
Sorry for the late appearance of this blog – I’d started it earlier in the week, but was distracted by other matters and forgot to finish it. As a result some of the … Read more >>
How Azed manages to produce these grids is a source of amazement. I think he does it all by hand in an exercise book, and doesn’t call upon electronic help. We have three eleven-letter answers from top to bottom, and nothing seems to be strained (although perhaps caa’s was a bit of a stretch). There are one or two places where I’m not quite sure; no doubt all will be explained.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
A plain 12 x 12 puzzle for this month’s competition.
A plain puzzle from Azed this week. This was a standard Azed offering with precise wordplay and interesting surfaces hiding plenty of misdirection. As ever, my vocabulary increased as a … Read more >>
A mostly straightforward Plain offering this week, with a few wrinkly clues in the mix.
A plain Azed that relies less on Scots and archaic terms than I’ve become used to.
Thanks to Azed Across 1 SPRINGAL Drinks knocked back, including round, in early youth (8)RING (round) in reverse of LAPS – “early” means it’s an archaic word 7 IDLE Eric, maybe, not … Read more >>
Apart from the problem (so far as I can see) with 29dn, this is a good example of the elegant clueing that we have come to associate with Azed. I sometimes grumble about his surfaces (what does 20ac for example actually mean?), but he does produce these things week after week, not to say a whole lot of clue-judging and regular specials, and he generally does try hard to get decent surfaces; there are as always some lovely clues (like 30ac and 27dn).
Definitions underlined in crimson. Anagram indicators in italics.
It’s the Azed Christmas special this week. There was quite a lengthy preamble explaining what solvers were asked to do and stating that some entries would not be found in … Read more >>
I finally managed to acquire a copy of Chambers Dictionary (2016), which made completing this puzzle immeasurably easier . . .
A slow burner for me.
A higher-than-usual proportion of unfamiliar words in this one, I think, which tends to increase the difficulty. A satisfying challenge as always – thanks to Azed. Across 1 U-SHAPED Scottish expert bagging … Read more >>