The usual Everyman for me this week.
Observer
AZED 2,218
A plain puzzle for the December competition, although no doubt the Christmas special will be rather more complex.
Everyman 3,557 (7 December 2014)
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3557.
Everyman 3,556
Another fairly straightforward everyman, with a couple of new words and some parsing that escaped me.
Azed 2,217
This is the last time you will see me for a while unless someone else decides to go on holiday. It is also the first time I have been scheduled to blog an … Read more >>
Everyman 3555/23 November
I often find with Everyman that his references make me go and look up stuff that I kind of knew, but had forgotten. So once I’d finished solving the puzzle this morning I … Read more >>
AZED 2,216
Scots, Scots and more Scots. Nonetheless, with help from that well-known Scots dictionary, Chambers, managed the slog. Not the most easy of Azed’s but eventually I think I tamed it.
AZED 2,215
A standard and typically sound and pleasant Plain from Azed this week. Most of the clues allow a very straightforward and brief parsing. One or two of his ways are a bit beyond me, and 8dn is completely beyond me, but I trust someone will explain.
As usual I won’t trouble you with explanations of the rare words: they are all there in Chambers.
Definitions underlined.
Everyman No 3,554 (16/11/14)
Everyman is my usual gentle warm-up early on a Sunday morning before moving on to the likes of Azed, Inquisitor and Beelzebub and today was no exception. Nothing held me up for long … Read more >>
Everyman 3,553
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3553.
Azed 2214 – Jigsaw
Azed gives us a jigsaw about every two years, and by the luck of the draw I also blogged the last one. As I said then, my first step with these is to … Read more >>
AZED 2,213
I found this quite tricky, especially on the left-hand side of the grid. I spent a lot of time trawling Chambers to make progress there.
AZED 2,212
This week’s plain puzzle contained several clues that would not be out of place in a daily cryptic.
Everyman 3551/26 October
A lot of clever anagrams in this one, and the typically good surfaces that we expect from Everyman. One or two tricky ones, though, where I for one needed some crossing letters before … Read more >>