Never knowingly undersolved
Other than a numbering malfunction in the online edition once it had finally become available after a couple of days (across clue numbers from 29 needed to be incremented which I spent far … Read more >>
Lorraine: Good morning to you all. Yet another fine puzzle from Everyman this week. I found a few tricky clues here so I did need a bit of help from Nick. Big … Read more >>
The usual solid workout from Azed. In his clue-setting competitions, there is an extraordinary preponderance of comp. anags. but in his own crosswords he has apparently only had one or at most two. Until now, and I don’t remember three before.
Definitions underlined.
A medium-difficulty Azed (for me) this time. As usual, no problems with the excellent clues (apart from a slight eyebrow-raise at 1d), but there were a few mistakes/misprints in both the online and … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3529. Everyman’s usual mix of smooth surfaces and elegant if not too complicated constructions, with film references and geographical references thrown in. Across 1. Depressed facing autumn … Read more >>
The particular feature of this puzzle presented a problem to your blogger.
‘Good morning one and all’ is the usual opening from Lorraine, when it is the Trafites’ turn to blog – but this week they are on a well-earned break, and I have the … Read more >>
A French theme to this week’s puzzle.
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 >>
Lorraine: Good morning one and all. I enjoyed this weeks offering until I got to the South West corner; I needed help with 15dn, 16dn and 24ac. Thanks Nick, to the rescue once again. … Read more >>
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 >>
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 >>
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 >>
Lorraine: Good morning, I enjoyed this weeks offering immensely until I got to 11ac and 20dn, needed Nick’s help to solve those two. Thanks Nick. I found it took me … Read more >>
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.