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 47 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 Forum is now available for discussion of all things crossword-related
Latest Posts
Latest Comments
Latest Forum Topics/Posts
Good morning DCL. Another terrific ‘Arrietty’. My COD 16a. Very enjoyable fill after brekky Oz Fri. morning as the UK…
Hi Doctors, This may have been asked before, but do you think hyphenated words have a centre (and I suppose…
A spoonerism is also known as a ‘marrowsky’, but how one could work that into a clue I have absolutely…
Thanks, Docs. I’m keen on having as many different types of construction as possible available for the benefit of setters…
My take on spoonerisms is that the enjoyment (for those as likes them!) is not in determining that the wordplay…
Hi Alex Firstly, great to see that Monk’s new nomenclature is catching on! I’m struggling to find a good example,…
Hi Docs, I have always enjoyed Spoonerisms in special puzzles and in clue-writing competitions but I think the trouble with…
I don’t often react aloud (euphemism alert) to crossword clues, but certainly did when the penny dropped for 2a. Re…
Thanks for that, Doc, and thanks for the Emerson reference. I meant to say that I thought that this was…
Hi Paul I’m not sure that I would have used the definition in 19a myself, but the question mark (which…
RE: Cruciverbiana
I'm not familiar with that anecdote, but I can confirm there are quite a few instances of the same clue (a CD usually) r…
By Crossguesser , 4 days ago
RE: Cruciverbiana
There is a slight irony here, in that Roger Squires kept a card index system (initially set up by his sister-in-law) con…
By Doctor Clue , 5 days ago
RE: Cruciverbiana
Wow, I had no idea about this! Thanks for sharing the story. I have so many questions… 🤔 A database of 42,…
By Doctor Cluelittle , 5 days ago
RE: Cruciverbiana
Another reason to be grateful to Boris Johnson – sort of – is his backing down when he was an assistant editor at the Te…
By Crossguesser , 5 days ago
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 , 3 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 , 4 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 , 4 weeks ago
Cruciverbiana
Do you have any favourite crossword-related anecdotes, either gleaned from others or drawn from your own experience? I…
By Xotic , 4 weeks ago