Observer

Still restricting myself to a Listener-only diet, Azed comes as a welcome relief in the advanced cryptic scheme of things. I found this puzzle to have the normal level of well-constructed clues requiring … Read more >>

A nice crossword from Azed, with several good clues. His grids are always excellent: how he manages to fit in so many long words and avoid using three-letter-words I don’t know. Across 1 STARCH BLOCKER — … Read more >>

Greetings Time for an occasional posting.  Quite good fun from Azed this week with several witty clues and the usual smattering of obscure words. ACROSS 1    BUSHWHACKING    BUSH + WHACKING (large as in … Read more >>

Solving time: 36 minutes, with Chambers used for about the last 30% of answers. One query left from me about wordplay – so maybe a wrong answer (34), one minor slip-up by Azed … Read more >>

As always, an enjoyable challenge from Azed, with some lovely clues. The two long answers at 1ac and 1dn were pretty easy to spot, and were a big help in getting going with … Read more >>

I found this a relatively easy Azed. The four long answers on each of the edges provided a good lever to open up the grid. All were anagrams or near complete partial anagrams … Read more >>

Now that many crossword devotees have bought Jonathan Crowther’s book, Collins have decided to remainder it. It is now available for the knock-down price of £5.99 from the online, high quality, remainder bookshop … Read more >>

I must confess that my heart sank when I saw the special instructions for this puzzle, but in the end it turned out to be only a little more difficult than usual. For … Read more >>

A pretty good Azed this week — it took a while to solve, because the surface reading in some clues was nicely deceptive. As for me, a seriously painful dental infection has hampered … Read more >>

Having confined myself to a strict diet of The Listener over the last few months (and at the other end of the spectrum, the Times2 crossword), it was refreshing to solve a puzzle … Read more >>

In Azed’s crosswords there is always an enormous amount of Chambers-checking meanings of words. If this blog were to contain all the unusual definitions it would be three times as long. I’ll assume … Read more >>

I’ll be back a bit later today with the blog on this puzzle.

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 >>