Azed

Solving time 43:08, Chambers used when grid about half full – but one probable wrong answer. A fairly straightforward puzzle I think – took about half as long as Mephisto. In my current … Read more >>

Printer’s Devilry puzzles are an interesting and enjoyable change that Azed produces from time to time. I thought we’d had one fairly recently – it turns out I was thinking of the 2007 … Read more >>

A more demanding puzzle than some of Azed’s recent ones; and, to me, all the better for that. As usual, I learnt a few new words, though I’m not sure when I’ll ever … Read more >>

Solving time : about a day (but it was my birthday, so I was distracted).  Loads of unfamiliar words this week, and some excellent surface readings (e.g. 19 across).  I found the south-west … Read more >>

I managed to solve most of this one while multi-tasking at Lord’s last Sunday (otherwise known as looking up each time an England bowler sent down a delivery which failed to take a … Read more >>

At first I found this fairly easy going – in particular, several rather obvious anagrams (34, 28, 20…) were my way in, so that I swiftly filled in the bottom half. I was … Read more >>

Some nice clues, but – dare I say it – one or two whose surfaces are pretty vacuous. As usual, I’m afraid. Azed has produced some wonderful stuff over the years, but nowadays … Read more >>

This was probably Azed at his toughest and I am grateful to Peter B and the Cryptonuts for helping fill-in my gaps. First things first. As with all out-of-the ordinary puzzles, read and … Read more >>

I offered to do this blog, then discovered that I had thrown out my copy of the solution, which doesn’t yet appear to be available on the Guardian/Observer website, so I had to … Read more >>

Another fairly straightforward Azed puzzle for my first official blog, with some easy hidden answers and anagrams to get started on. The grid is slightly unusual, with 38 words in it rather than … Read more >>

It’s a competition Azed this week. For me this means one less answer to explain! I solved this crossword very quickly for a competition puzzle, I usually find them a little tougher than … Read more >>

Solving time: longer than I care to admit, but see 16 across. I completed about three quarters of the puzzle in an hour, but the northeast quadrant proved to be stubborn. This is … Read more >>

Very much at the easy end of the Azed spectrum (I hope that doesn’t upset anyone). I don’t know how long this took me, as I don’t time myself and I’m usually multi-tasking … Read more >>

When I’ve finished writing this blog up, I’m going to count how many Scots terms there were in clues and answers — seemed like a lot but in any event this is going … Read more >>

Azed produces these nice puzzles from time to time, although this is the first of this type I’ve seen: usually the anchor-word is vertical at the left and the two grid patterns are … Read more >>