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 45 Information about the latest changes to the site as of 22/08/26 can be found on the Clinic Refurbishment Status page The Forum is now available for discussion of all things crossword-related The PDF of the latest Azed puzzle is available at this link: Azed 2,782 The July Digest is now live, providing a short round-up of news and views from the Clinic
Latest Posts
Latest Comments
Latest Forum Topics/Posts
This was certainly cleverly done, but badly undermined by the level of contrivance required to fit in the song titles,…
Not as bad as I feared when I looked at it. But, being asked to admire what the setter does,…
That’s not unpossible. Your use of ‘cromulent’ makes me think of the Simpsons episode where instead of a ‘subliminal learning’…
I can think of two forms of 34As – one for the old maids, and the other for the likes…
Very disappointed with this crossword. I thought that it was self-indulgent with badly constructed and easy to answer clues. Certainly…
While ‘reclining your seat’ and ‘putting your seat back’ on an aircraft come to the same thing, it is only…
Thanks. I was thinking of a reclining chair
Hi Avtaar, and thanks for the suggestions. When it comes to ‘recline’, the transitive sense given by Chambers of ‘to…
Nope. not in my book. It caused me to raise an eyebrow, and I felt that it was a ‘worse’…
Hi Alex. I take your point. However, the good Doc mentioned some time ago that, when possible, Ch auto-pluralises any…
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 , 1 day 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 days 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 , 3 days ago
Cruciverbiana
Do you have any favourite crossword-related anecdotes, either gleaned from others or drawn from your own experience? I…
By Xotic , 5 days ago