The original puzzle may be found here.
Following last week’s special, this is the expected plain puzzle from Gemelo.
Gemelo
Gemelo 40
Gemelo gives us a special puzzle this week where, for 12 entries, we have to put the opposite of the clue answer into the grid.
Gemelo No. 39
Apologies for the late blog…
Gemelo 38
Thanks to Gemelo for another ingeniously clued puzzle.
Gemelo No. 37
An excellent crossword, not easy but — as should be the case — its difficulties were conquerable with some persistence. It seems to me that, with one or two very very slight exceptions, Gemelo has been scrupulous in his accuracy.
My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*
Gemelo 36
Gemelo in his usual Sunday Observer slot – probably be Azed today when this blog is published, as today is the first Sunday of the month.
Gemelo No. 35 – Bonus Shares
Really an ingenious special puzzle this week from Gemelo.
Gemelo No. 34
A medium-difficulty Gemelo this week.
Gemelo 33
Apologies for the late arrival of this blog. I’ve been away on holiday and had got my dates muddled up. In the interests of getting it published today I’ve kept the explanations brief: … Read more >>
Gemelo No. 32
Perhaps the most Azed-like puzzle from Gemelo yet.
Gemelo 31
Gemelo gives a special puzzle this week. We were presented with a set of clues that looked like this; It took me a while to get into this puzzle, as I didn’t see … Read more >>
Gemelo No. 30
A surprisingly approachable offering from Gemelo this week.
Gemelo 29
I think I’m gradually getting the hang of this setter: a few tricky moments but less of a struggle than I’ve found some of his work. Thanks to Gemelo.
Gemelo No. 28 – Plain
After the brilliant Gemelo 27 with its Spoonerisms etc, we are now back to a plain Gemelo, and it seemed to me to be harder, possibly because I was solving at the computer (the software that I normally use has been tripped up by The Observer’s changes and this blog will look a bit different) with my reference books on my lap — I hadn’t learnt how to print a pdf, which thanks to The Observer I know now. There are two whose parsing is at present beyond me and which I hope to understand while I’m doing the blog. [Later: no].
My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.
Definitions in some sort of red, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*
Gemelo No. 27 – Spooner or Letter
Arguably the best Gemelo yet, with devices that do not just display the setter’s ingenuity but also challenge the solver.