Azed

I found this one of the hardest Azed plain puzzles for a long time, with, I think, a higher-than-average proportion of obscure words. I ended up with some rather tedious dictionary-searching to get … Read more >>

Nick:  A fairly tough AZED this week, I felt, but with some entertaining word play construction going on. There are several solution words I have never heard of this time around. A good solve. … Read more >>

A 13 by 11 grid this week,which is in fact one of Azed’s standard sizes. We were spoiled recently with a 13 x 13 grid (2012). Still, I shouldn’t grumble as I got … Read more >>

An Azed of average difficulty — most answers were pretty straighforward to work out from the wordplay, but I needed Chambers to check that some of the words really existed. Skelder, fratch and … Read more >>

We have had a plethora of Azed Specials recently, caused no doubt by things occurring at inconvenient times: first we has TWO THOUSAND, which was in effect the October competition and celebrated Azed’s … Read more >>

I missed the boat on this one. Later than I thought with this post. Work? Anyway, a couple of disappointing wordplays that escape me with a few very good clues with very well-hidden … Read more >>

Due to the festivities, the closing date for entries for this puzzle was put back to Saturday 8 January (this was not indicated in the on-line pdf version). The blog for this puzzle … Read more >>

I thought I was off to a good start on this one when I got 1ac straight away, but things got a bit tougher after that, and it took me a couple of … Read more >>

Nick:  My second blog of an AZED competiton puzzle. The preamble: Special instructions: This puzzle marks an unrepeatable occasion, hinted at by the unclued entry at 1 Across (not given in Chambers as … Read more >>

A mixture this week of clever clues  and others made relatively easy by their use of 2 or 3 letter words which regular solvers will quickly have recognised (e.g. 12, 16 and 20 … Read more >>

A mostly straightforward Azed, with a few that held me up for a while and needed to be checked in Chambers (like the definition of ‘office’ in 19a). I didn’t get the wordplay … Read more >>

I note that I totally skipped Azed 2000 — I should probably take a look at it (I’ve been slightly busy).  This one was done over a few days while waiting for long … Read more >>

Azed’s last competition puzzle was (of course, 2000) a special and I’d been expecting a little run of plains, but his specials, although they always take a bit longer than usual, are well … Read more >>

Azed 2005 – Plain This was a pretty straightforward puzzle, done in 40 minutes, with Chambers only used for the last two answers – 26, which I should have got on my own, … Read more >>

Another Azed that I managed to complete almost all of quite quickly without references, though with some educated guesswork based on many years of finding obscure words in Chambers. Still, it’s none the … Read more >>