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 Azed puzzle is available at this link: Azed 2,783 The August Digest is now published, with Doctor’s Notes, news from the Clinic, and a chance to vote in the monthly poll The PDF of the latest Gemelo puzzle is available at this link: Gemelo 46 The Forum is now available for discussion of all things crossword-related
Latest Posts
Latest Comments
Latest Forum Topics/Posts
It’s a murky area, but fairness to solvers is of paramount importance. And I don’t hear the Appendix grumbling… 😉
But those two examples are in Chambers Appendices. You wouldn’t want to mention that in a preamble of course, it…
A couple of points: My remarks about words or phrases (not proper nouns) absent from the primary reference needs to…
Thanks for that clarification, very helpful. I had read the relevant Setting Room passages and was pleased to find that…
Hi Alex Excellent question! I will try to get as close to a definitive answer as I can. When it…
There is no way (in my view) that ‘Not Y X’ can possibly indicate (X-Y). Even an ‘invisicomma’ can’t save…
Hi Docs, in barred puzzles is it acceptable to use words from Chambers’ Appendices as entries? ‘Some First Names’, ‘Phrases…
Yes, that helps – thanks. The substitution is not one I have seen anywhere else, so I feel less embarrassed…
Hi Tim The wordplay is something of an abomination grammatically. Think ‘circular without following’, and then substitute ‘case for holding…
I must be missing something obvious for 9D – could you please provide a hint?
RE: Cruciverbiana
Great topic – I'm also very partial to crossword-related stories and now I have a couple more to add to my collection, s…
By Doctor Cluelittle , 2 weeks ago
RE: Cruciverbiana
I was pretty sure I would never have cause to be grateful to Boris Johnson. I was wrong. About 12 years ago, at Poprad…
By Kev , 2 weeks ago
RE: Cruciverbiana
As a big fan of Michael Frayn's books, I enjoyed reading this description of his encounter with Azed (in a Guardian arti…
By QC05 , 2 weeks ago
Cruciverbiana
Do you have any favourite crossword-related anecdotes, either gleaned from others or drawn from your own experience? I…
By Xotic , 3 weeks ago