Another very enjoyable excursion through the lesser-visited areas of the dictionary led by our expert guide Azed. Thank you Azed.
Azed
AZED 2,358
I always err in these Azed blogs on the side of giving rather too little information: anyone who is going to look at them will have a copy of Chambers to hand and will be able to understand the incredibly unusual words both in the answers and in the clues. the actual parsing is usually fairly simple. Sometimes I forget the definition in the time between doing the puzzle and doing the blog, but once one has given the wordplay the definition is usually obvious.
But what about those people who are new to Azed solving and want to have the clues properly explained? Well to them I say get a copy of Chambers. And if the price puts you off, the version for the smartphone is a fraction of the price and so far as I can see contains basically the whole of the new edition.
Azed 2357
In contrast to my usual method of solving Azed over Sunday breakfast, I did this one intermittently while on a walking holiday on Scotland, so it’s hard to tell how its difficulty compares … Read more >>
AZED 2,356 – Payfair
I had heard of Playfair crosswords but had not seen one before now. I found Azed’s instructions comprehensive but not very easy to understand so I looked up Playfair on the Web. Also a few typos have crept back into the on-line PDF which did not help matters. Fortunately another quick look on the web turned up what has to be done: the clue text for 1, 19, 23 and 37 across needs to be italicised; the clue for 23 across is wrongly numbered as 22 across; the letter count for 16 down is 3 not 4.
AZED 2,355
Another plain 12 x 12 puzzle from Azed this week.
Azed 2354
A plain Azed puzzle for us this time This was a fairly standard Azed puzzle with precise cluing. The format of the clues is rarely different from those you find … Read more >>
AZED 2,353
Either I’ve been doing this long enough to actually have improved or… (more likely) this was on the easier end of the Azed spectrum. In any event, finished this off in about an hour (v. fast for me) without overly abusing Chambers.
AZED 2,352
In a few cases (14ac, 19dn, 25dn, 27dn) Azed has produced clues of the highest quality, clues that would I’m sure be quoted in his own clue-setting competitions, but many of the rest, as is always the case with Azed, are, although perfectly sound and quite pleasant, very simple in their construction and the answers are only difficult to find because they require knowledge of words that are way beyond the ken of the solver on the Clapham omnibus. Which is as it should be. He is not intended to be solved on the C. o.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Azed 2351
There seems to be a higher-than-usual proportion of unfamiliar words in this puzzle, but despite that I managed to finish it quite quickly without aids (though a couple of my plausible guesses turned … Read more >>
AZED No. 2,350 SUMMER READING
Super puzzle and an enjoyable change form the standard Sunday fare. Thank you Azed.
AZED 2,349
A more than usually eclectic mix of words from Azed this week.
Azed 2348
A plain Azed puzzle this week The parsing took me a while to suss out this week. I didn’t get to the bottom of a few clues until well into … Read more >>
Azed 2,347
I’m back again because another stand-in has been needed. On my initial pass through the clues it was a long time before I had my first entry (10dn) but this was quickly followed … Read more >>
AZED 2,346
A nice comparatively easy Azed today — the last one I did was his P.D. at the start of May, and that took ages. This one didn’t, although it was less fun. But very enjoyable, though. 8dn?
As always I haven’t bothered to explain the difficult words.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Azed 2,345
My second Azed blog and this time I’m able to write it at leisure with no time constraints. However, the extra time hasn’t meant that I am fully satisfied with this post because … Read more >>