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 48 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
Certain words have a habit of popping up regularly, particularly with automatic grid-filling software, which will tend to use words…
Oh dear! I was going to say that there is nothing like a seriously duff entry for really making things…
I managed to convince myself early on that 14d was WATCHET ( a fisherman’s fly) for the definition, ‘Skipper’s mark’),…
Some recycling this week, as 15A reappears three months after the same word was 8D in Gemelo 39, albeit with…
Hi Jim Chambers defines ‘centre’ as ‘the middle point of anything’ and ‘the middle area of anything’, while ‘middle’ is…
Thanks, Jim – very happy to hear you enjoyed it! And will do…
In the ‘centre’ context, the Clinic says that ‘focus’ [of a word] is the middle letter, and the example is…
Yes, ‘putting paid to’ would work nicely, probably with a qualifier suggesting that the sort of baker being affected was…
Oh it was definitely ‘of convenience’ 😉 ‘Spoils’ is very versatile. Hmm perhaps ‘putting paid to’ for the removal, or…
A lopsided word like ‘bread-tax’ doesn’t seem to me to have a clearly identifiable heart, and it also appears to…
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 , 1 week 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 , 1 week 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 , 1 week 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 , 1 week 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 , 4 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 , 1 month ago