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.
Observer
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 >>
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 >>
Everyman 3,553
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3553.
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 >>
Everyman 3,550
A quite enjoyable Everyman this week
Azed 2211
As ever, a well constructed puzzle from Azed. There are a couple of clues where I am not entirely sure of the wordplay, indeed for 16 across [SEMPER] I really … Read more >>
Azed 2120/mostly gentle
A relatively gentle exercise that didn’t require too many trips to Chambers. I got stuck though on the NE corner for a long time (as long as the rest of the puzzle took) … Read more >>
Everyman 3,549 (12 October)
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3549.
Everyman 3,548
Breezy stuff, on a breezy day.
AZED 2,209
The first of Azed’s Letters Latent puzzles since VE(S)TAL in 2009. I won’t give the complete preamble since you have no doubt already seen it, but letters are missing from each answer whenever they occur and these missing letters make an appropriate seasonal quotation. The definition is to the whole word, the subsidiary indication to the word with letters missing. Two words are missing from this quotation and the first one is clued like all the rest in the puzzle; the second one is the competition clue-word.
In the answers I have given the omitted letters in lower-case.
The quotation (which I have to admit to finding using Google) was from Ernest Dowson: ‘pale amber sunlight falls across the [reddening October] trees’.
As with all Azed’s specials, this was much enjoyed.