Guardian 26,819 / Rufus

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A traditional Rufus medley, with perhaps more anagrams and fewer cryptic and double definitions than usual. There are a couple of places where the cluing seems rather awry but it’s perhaps me being … Read more >>

Beelzebub 1355

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This was a little unusual for a Beelzebub in that I only needed to read a handful of clues more than once. Instead of my usual initial pass through all the clues, having … Read more >>

AZED 2,281

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I always cheat when doing Azed. In a normal daily cryptic this would be unforgivable until perhaps the very end when one is stuck, but with Azed I always say to myself that the words are so weird that one needs help. You may say that I should persevere and try to do it all from the wordplay and only then look up the word to see if it exists, and yes I do sometimes do that, but the wordplay itself also often makes reference to some impossible words and I’d never get anywhere. At least I would. but it would take me about ten times as long as I normally spend.

As always everything, with its neat clueing, is perfectly clear after the event.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

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Guardian 26,812 / Brummie

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I really enjoy Brummie’s crosswords – always entertaining and often with interesting vocabulary and wordplay. I didn’t spot any particular theme here; the notable thing that jumped out at us were a couple … Read more >>