The Clue Clinic

Welcome to The Clue Clinic – where people interested in solving or setting cryptic crosswords come to learn, sharpen their skills, and get expert guidance from experienced setters.

If this is your first visit, we would recommend visiting the About This Site page to get some ideas about the areas of the site which may be of particular interest to you and the ways in which you can interact with Clinic staff and other readers.

What’s New

The PDF of the latest Gemelo puzzle is available at this link: Gemelo 40
The PDF of the latest Azed puzzle is available at this link: Azed 2,781
The June Digest is now live, providing a short round-up of news and views from the Clinic.
As of 16th June a number of improvements have been made to the Clinical Data table display. See the Refurbishment Project Status page for details.

Latest Posts

Latest Comments

  1. Hello Doctor, “Adjacent to” is listed as a juxtaposition indicator with a qualifier that it can be before or after…

  2. Rugby move nicked by idol’s an unavoidable accident (9, 3 words)

  3. Of course…3 lions, 11+ heroes ⚽🤞 Furious about Argentina ‘goal’, at heart retaining name – this one (8)

  4. Your mind’s bound to wander a bit this week when writing about lions and heroes!

  5. Thanks, Alex – my brain was clearly struggling to cope with all those brothers (who, incidentally, started out as teachers)…

  6. Hi Doc. In your reply to Anon Cues (13th July) should your first example of type II have said ‘Lion…

  7. Thank you, Doc! That makes perfect sense and has very much helped to clarify my misgivings.

  8. Hi Anon That’s an excellent question, and one that I haven’t properly covered before. The issue that you describe stems…