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 39
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.
The PDF of the latest Azed puzzle is available at this link: Azed 2780
The May Digest is now live, providing a short round-up of news and views from the Clinic.

Latest Posts

Latest Comments

  1. Thank you, Doc! That’s very helpful.

  2. Hi Anon, and thanks for a question that I don’t remember previously giving consideration to. Like you, I can’t accept…

  3. Hi Doc, I suspect the answer is no, because I’ve never seen it used, but do you think a case…

  4. Hi Tony I think of Chambers Dictionary as being rather like an ocean-going liner – there’s plenty of good stuff…

  5. Totally off any crossword topic, but not quite. A passing reference to drug addiction brought me straight to my favourite…

  6. Thanks for explaining the King Lear reference which was my only sticking point. I see now that had I used…

  7. Hi Andrew. I think that ‘Ask the Doctor’ extends to ‘Tell the Doctor’, ‘Berate the Doctor’ etc. I completely agree…

  8. Hello Doctor. This is more an observation than a question, but you might like to comment. Under Whimsical Indicators in…

  9. Hi Alex Chastened by Richard H’s observation that I had been a bit hard on Gemelo last week, I thought…

  10. Hi Doc, I thought you were being quite generous in your remarks regarding the use of ‘almost’ to indicate the…