Observer

Everyman 3527/11 May

by

Another entertaining and cleverly clued puzzle from Everyman, although there were – unusually – a couple that didn’t really hit the spot for me this morning.  You’ll no doubt tell me if I … Read more >>

Azed 2187

by

A plain competition Azed this week.       I found this harder than most Azeds that I have blogged recently and I enjoyed solving it.  I can usually get at least half the … Read more >>

Azed 2186/over the top

by

Relatively gentle for an Azed (i.e. I solved it in about an hour which is fast for me).  A couple of uncharacteristic errors — incorrect enumeration at 31A and bad anagram fodder at … Read more >>

Everyman N° 3,525

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3525. Everyman is branching out – last week a Nina, here a mini-theme, if two Tolkien clues (and maybe in 12A a third, at a pinch) counts … Read more >>

AZED 2,185

by

The usual Azed, where the wordplay is so precise that you can often be pretty sure of the answers without knowing the words. I solved most of this when away for the weekend and came home with many unknown words written by the clues but not yet in the grid, ready for me to look them up in Chambers.

I thought that 19dn was very good, but my godson had a point when he opined that the ‘e.g.’ takes away from the surface reading. However, Azed (but not all setters, including some in The Times) clearly abhors a definition by example. And rightly so in my opinion.

Definitions in italics.

Read more >>

Azed 2,184

by

Owing to a very busy week I’ve hardly had time to solve this puzzle – which I think was of above average difficulty, thanks to a high proportion of unfamiliar words – let … Read more >>

Everyman 3523/13 April

by

Another lovely Everyman, with plenty of anagrams to get us going, and some delightful but accessible clues all over the grid.     Abbreviations cd  cryptic definition dd  double definition (xxxx)*  anagram anagrind … Read more >>