Azed

This was a standard competition puzzle from AZED.  None of the entries were particularly difficult to parse. As is the case with many of AZED‘s puzzle there was a determined raid on words … Read more >>

A tale of two languages.  I think this is one of the rare occasions in which all is understood (famous last words).  Much credit is due my new shiny iPad with the Chambers … Read more >>

A rare special on a non-competition day, which was a very pleasant exercise — I don’t remember seeing this type of crossword before and I found solving tricky, not for all the usual … Read more >>

I found this pretty hard for a plain Azed, with an above-average number of unfamiliar words. I got 10dn and 35ac early on, and found myself working up to the top left corner … Read more >>

Nick  7/10 for me today, due to the second/third definitions of certain words given in Chambers. I expected some sort of Royal theme with trickery today, so was a bit surprised just to see … Read more >>

A mixed bag this week from Azed.  I was able to solve quite a bit on the train (with reference to Chambers when I got home to verify my answers) but I found … Read more >>

This was a standard plain crossword from Azed.  As usual in an Azed crossword, there were a number of uncommon words, some with Scottish links.  However, I felt that today’s assortment of words were … Read more >>

Oddly enough my last clue was the one I should have recognized immediately (since I used to live on a kibbutz) — namely, 15A.  On which I think Azed made a slight mistake. … Read more >>

The usual Azed solve: excellent sound clueing and a large number of words that you never knew existed. Across 1 BEWITCH — the competition clue-word 7 ASTI{r} 10 ATHAPASCAN — (Apach{e} Satan)* although … Read more >>

This was very much a puzzle of two halves for me. I rattled off the left-hand side very quickly, helped by the easy anagram-based clues at 1ac and 1dn, but then stalled somewhat … Read more >>

Nick:  Fairly easy Azed his week, 6/10. There are two ‘gotchas’ if the solver guesses rather than solve the word play, namely 10dn and 26 dn. Across 1. Weekend on British river – one … Read more >>

An unusual grid construction in this week’s Azed gave us rather more 4-letter words than usual, as well as the usual quotient of obsolete, foreign (particularly French) and downright obscure words.  The 4-letter … Read more >>

It’s often said that you know you are right when you complete the last stage of a Listener puzzle properly.  I think the same can be said of the parsing Azed’s clues.  If … Read more >>

I kept an open mind about this but the APRIL FOOL theme was unavoidable — i.e. once the grid was full there was no obvious way to resolve the clashes other than to … Read more >>

The usual thing from Azed: utterly sound clueing and lots of wading through Chambers in search of words you have never heard of, which is quite fun, once you’re used to it. As … Read more >>