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 42 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
Thanks, Jay. I should have looked more closely at the clue when writing the Notes! Indeed, you can take my…
19a I think it’s just the first letter, not the first two, that are replaced. You’ve discussed the use of…
Hi Barrie It’s universally accepted in UK cryptics that an unbroken string of words can govern a singular verb (‘see…
Shouldn’t that example be ‘see belt buckle’?
Thanks, Mark The use of indicators like ‘at first’ or ‘primarily’ to select the first letters of multiple words is…
The idea is that fairness to the solver demands the second indicator. I would argue that the logic behind this…
Hi Dr Clue and apologies for being tardy in reply. Yes, I do think that aditional qualification would be helpful.…
I enjoyed this spicy puzzle, some clever misdirection (the ‘twisted line’ in 20d). I’ve never quite understood the type of…
Hi RK When it comes to ‘intermittent selection’ indicators, if we judged them strictly within the context of real-life meanings…
Hi, I see “every so often” as a valid indicator for picking alternate letters. Why not just “often”? Would like…