Azed 1945: Are you looking at my bird?
An Azed with some nicely challenging clues this week. I managed to complete it without a dictionary, while watching England lose the first ODI at Lord’s — though I did need to double-check … Read more >>
Observer
Everyman 3284
No big surprises here and nothing very difficult. There do seem to be a lot of word or part word reversals in this one. The main point of note is a rare but … Read more >>
Everyman No. 3283 (August 30th)
Lorraine: I guess Everyman knows when I have to blog, as it is would appear that it is only difficult every other week – always my week! Nick: I apologise for the doo’s … Read more >>
Azed 1944 – lots left for the reader
Another wordplay debacle in the SE corner. I had the rest done in an hour or so (The Big Red Book consoling me as needed) — however, I struggled through the bottom-right for … Read more >>
Everyman 3282
It felt like a lot of anagrams and first or last letters this week, but maybe that was just the order in which I approached the clues. The few place name answers were … Read more >>
Azed 1943
I am always full of admiration for Azed’s grids. Here he has what seems to me to be a great achievement, four twelve-letter words, two next to each other going down the centre … Read more >>
Azed 1,942
Apologies for the late appearance of this analysis and for the lack of any real comment. I cannot remember too much about this puzzle having completed many more crosswords in the time between … Read more >>
Everyman No. 3281 (16th August)
Lorraine: Yet again an easy crossword this week. I only had to look up Buffo, and although I knew the word I didn’t know the meaning. Legend to solution comments: * = anagram. … Read more >>
Azed 1941
Apologies for the late posting: I’d got my dates confused and only realised I was supposed to be blogging this puzzle just before I had to go out for a few hours. I … Read more >>
Everyman 3280
Nice and easy this week. There’s a couple of odd words, but usually with such clear signposts and complete definitions, it’s not very hard to check you’ve got the right thing. Overall, a … Read more >>
Azed 1940 – Wrong Number (Competition puzzle)
“Wrong Number” is a long-standing type of special – I can’t remember whether it was Azed or Ximenes who invented it. Here’s the standard preamble for these puzzles: Each clue contains a one-word … Read more >>
Everyman No. 3279 (2nd August)
Lorraine says: This week was fairly straight forward and enjoyable. 🙂 Nick says: Lorraine would not let me do it this week – good job too, it took me 7 hours to do … Read more >>
Azed 1939: a bonzer offering!
A distinctly Antipodean flavour to this week’s offering, with a couple of pieces of Aussie (or Kiwi) slang, and a Maori word as well. Lots of other unfamiliar words, or unfamiliar meanings of … Read more >>
Everyman 3278
Pretty standard with a couple of neat tricks here and there, but nothing to tax Everyman regulars. Across 1 CICELY – (ICYCLE)* 4 SPROUTED – R in SPOUTED = sounded off 9 MUSCLE … Read more >>
Azed 1938: Sister act
Apologies for the late posting — this has been an unusually busy week, including the small matter of celebrating an England test victory at Lord’s; I have also been working on information about … Read more >>