Azed

This was a a fairly standard plain Azed puzzle with his usual high quality cluing.       I was pleasantly surprised by how many clues I solved on the first run through … Read more >>

Harder than usual even for an Azed.  I had to check the BRB for well over half of the answers.  OK I’m lying.  Closer to 80%.  A couple of unsolved wordplays await within. … Read more >>

The usual excellent crossword from Azed and as usual I won’t give detailed descriptions of all the very unusual words, in the knowledge that anyone interested enough in this crossword to look here … Read more >>

Another moderately easy Azed to start the new year, where I was helped by getting the long answer at 1d. Unusually I have a couple of nitpicks (15a and 21d) but apart from … Read more >>

Nick:  Fairly tough today, 8/10. There is a lot going on in the clues, which I think collectively, shows most of the Azed style. Across 1. Stage laugh, reverse of demure, greeting start of … Read more >>

This year Azed’s Christmas puzzle combined an old favourite (although not of all solvers), Printer’s Devilry,  for the across clues, with something entirely new for the down clues. These were normal clues made … Read more >>

Another very sound set of clues from Azed, making full use of the more obscure meanings of words.  You always know where you stand with Azed.  If you feel unhappy with the parsing … Read more >>

I solved this early in the week… but forgot to write up my notes until early this morning.  So I’m regressing to the mean: after a reasonably long spell of decoding all of … Read more >>

Again a lovely sound crossword from Azed. I won’t waste time by copying out Chambers but as usual will confine myself to trying to explain how the clues work, something that wasn’t always … Read more >>

The first thing that struck me about this puzzle was the unusually open grid, with wide open unbarred spaces, especially in the NE and SW corners. The two 13-letter across answers have only … Read more >>

Nick:  A fairly difficult Azed this week being a Letters Latent puzzle. He does give a way in though with the comment in the preamble about anagrams (for those that are new to … Read more >>

A reasonably straightforward Azed this week, with no particular problems (except one!) and a very friendly grid (only 2 unches in an 11 letter word).  The problem is 10 across, which refers to … Read more >>

This was a standard Azed competition puzzle in that all the clues were normal, except for the one entry that has to be clued by competitiors withm their submissions.       I … Read more >>

Might be wrong about this but seems like Azed has eschewed Scots terms for the duration.  Of this puzzle at least.  In favour of Latin and Greek. Across 1 BI(O)AS,SAY 7 AM(B)O – … Read more >>

As always with Azed, thoroughly sound clues and much wading through Chambers in a chase for words that one has never heard, frequently finding variant spellings and having to wade further still. As … Read more >>