Azed

NUDDY at 12 across brought to mind the lines from Ian Dury’s ‘Reasons to be Cheerful – Part 3: “Something nice to study, phoning up a buddy, being in my nuddy”. The song, … Read more >>

Solving time: 59 minutes, with Chambers used after about 30. Although I finished up with a slightly quicker time, I think I understand why last week’s commenter Ali said they were finding this … Read more >>

Solving time: 64 mins, with Chambers Not sure why this one was substantially harder than the previous week. The problems I remember a week later are finding the beer in 1A, and my … Read more >>

Solving time c. 45 mins in two sittings (without Chambers), but one mistake (or maybe more – see 8D). I’m surprised more crossword setters haven’t had fun with clues for FESTINA LENTE (35A). … Read more >>

When I made an error in a competition puzzle last year, after failing to confirm a guess in Chambers, Azed was kind enough to drop me a note pointing out my ‘lapsus calami’, with … Read more >>

The four longest entries in the puzzle were fairly straightforward, so I got off to a flier. I then attacked the rest of the puzzle, and quickly worked out or guessed most of … Read more >>

This review is brought to you by linxit and colinblackburn. linxit writes… After a good run of completed Azeds earlier in the year I’ve gone through a bit of a bad patch lately, … Read more >>

My first Azed blog, and I kinda left it to the last minute to start solving it (ie last night), but I got there in the end. Typical Azed puzzle, full of obscure … Read more >>

Solving time 16:05, without Chambers This is probably about as easy as Azed gets. Easy for me anyway, as 1A was a word I knew, and 9 first letters of relatively easy down … Read more >>

Solving time just 22:44 – I normally take at least twice that if not 3 times, so either I was on fire that day or it was a lot easier than usual…(but I … Read more >>

My first Azed. Definitely hard work: I invested at least 3 hours total. The vast majority of words I had to extract from Chambers. Azed’s saving grace is meticulous clueing – and, in … Read more >>

Solving time: About 45 mins without Chambers plus about 10 minutes with to check/finish off. One mistake (22ac), two I can’t explain (31ac and 2dn) – offers welcome. A quick scan suggests that … Read more >>

A relatively easy Azed to finish the year. Quite a few tough words, and many that were new to me, but I was able to fill them in without checking the dictionary as … Read more >>

I did most of this on the tube, without Chambers, which is an interesting exercise – you have to make quite a few educated guesses and then corroborate them via the dictionary later … Read more >>

Solving time 1:03:33. A rare thematic puzzle from Azed this week to mark puzzle no. 1800. There’s an extra letter in every clue which has to be removed before solving. These letters in … Read more >>