Azed

A puzzle in the middle of the Azed scale of difficulty, with no particularly involved clue construction, but a few rather obscure references needing lookups in Chambers and elsewhere. As always, quality clueing … Read more >>

Nick:  For a special, I found this rather easy, so 6/10 for me, but 9/10 for the cleverness. Incidently, this blog took me longer to do than the puzzle 😀 First, the preamble, so … Read more >>

Another straightforward puzzle from Azed, with the usual quota of obscure and historic words, necessitating many checks in Chambers.  I haven’t attempted to explain the meanings of the answers, just tried to show … Read more >>

This seemed to be a standard Azed puzzle with excellent clues and the usual mix of everyday and obscure vocabulary in the grid.       There was a good mix of clue … Read more >>

Not so dreadful though dreadfully showed up at least twice as an anagrind.   In fact, rather a gentle Azed that, other than all the French and Scots and Spenserisms, is a good … Read more >>

As usual an efficient production from Azed. I don’t seem to have said much about a succession of clues where the words in both the clue and the answer are not, to say the least, everyday, … Read more >>

I was wondering whether there might be some kind of special for this, as the first round(ish) number since 2000 and happening to coincide with a competition week, but it turned out to … Read more >>

Nick:  Fairly easy Azed this week, 5/10 for me. This was a tale of two halves, the top half going in very quickly, with the bottom half following at a slower (but still quick) … Read more >>

An easier than usual puzzle this week,  which I completed in just over an hour and a half, although I am still puzzled by the wordplay to 9 down.  It’s a 13 by … Read more >>

The preamble stated:  "Each couplet contains both a definition (one or more words) and a mixture of the letters (beginning at the beginning or ending at the end of a word in the … Read more >>

More than our usual share of compound anagrams — not that I have any statistical justification for claiming that.  My BRB is getting the worse for the wear… so I rely more and … Read more >>

A fairly typical Azed plain; nothing much to say, simply sound clueing of course and one or two rather thin surfaces but many good ones. On the website at any rate (I don’t … Read more >>

An Azed from the easy end of the spectrum, with almost entirely straightforward clueing, that I finished off in one shortish session. I don’t usually record these kinds of statistics, but I found … Read more >>

Nick:  Typical Azed puzzle, 6/10 for me. The possible gotcha clue is at 3dn, and a possible error in the clue at 32ac. 23dn contains the (possibly) most well known Chambers definition, but … Read more >>

I found this on the hard side for a plain Azed, certainly harder than last week’s competition puzzle.  In that puzzle Azed wrote a clue in French; this puzzle also required a knowledge … Read more >>