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 50. Anagram Act • In order to solve each clue, solvers must act to unscramble a word that has been anagrammed; first letters of the de-anagrammed words explain what must fill the unclued entries
The PDF of the latest Azed puzzle is available at this link: Azed 2,784
The September Digest is now published, with views, news…and a chance to give your opinion on the health of the cryptic
The Forum is now available for discussion of all things crossword-related

Latest Posts

Latest Comments

Latest Forum Topics/Posts

  1. A thematic entry for the non-competition… King John leased it with thanks after distillation of Armagnac (5,5)   (Armagnac)* TA…

  2. My query was the use of “M” in the initial letters of the anagrams for the instructions, which would read;…

  3. Hi John I’m not sure I understand. In 33a the word ‘stream’ is de-anagrammed to MASTER, which in turn yields…

  4. Very good puzzle and more challenging than most so far for Gemelo. In 33A surely the anagram should be of…

  5. I didn’t know the old abbreviation, thanks Jay. I saw a terrible pun, indicated by groan! But I think now…

  6. Thanks, Jay – a lapsus muris on my part, as my Latin master would probably have said if the relevant…

  7. Very nice puzzle, superbly constructed I thought. Thanks as always for the blog, Doc (small point, ‘beans’ is underlined in…

  • RE: New clue writing competition

    Hi Dr Cluelittle, I would certainly participate if you were to do this. As you’ve just seen I’ve already jumped the gun …

    By Jay , 7 hours ago

  • New clue writing competition

    I miss the monthly Azed clue-writing competitions. Even though I only entered a handful of them, I felt I learned a lot,…

    By Doctor Cluelittle , 8 hours ago

  • RE: Cruciverbiana

    I think "I've only got one clue left" is the one bit of dialogue I failed to take into account in my construction (must …

    By Dave Williams , 2 days ago

  • RE: Cruciverbiana

    Hi Skirwingle, and thank you. Since RC says "I've only got one clue left" but his checked letters are just the closin…

    By Doctor Clue , 2 days ago

  • RE: Cruciverbiana

    Skirwingle here 😊 Twm has just alerted me to the existence of this thread. Nice work: I like your solution of …

    By Dave Williams , 3 days ago

  • RE: Cruciverbiana

    Wait, what?! This is amazing work. I hope DW and others get to see it and it gets shared.

    By Crossguesser , 1 week ago

  • RE: Cruciverbiana

    Wonderful! But…there is a slight problem – Ronnie C's last entry is ??IT, which means that both the G and the R must b…

    By Doctor Clue , 1 week ago

  • RE: Cruciverbiana

    I love that someone's attempted this! An entertaining read from Skirwingle. And he did manage to produce a complete puzz…

    By Doctor Cluelittle , 1 week ago

  • RE: Cruciverbiana

    It's great. Dave Williams, aka Skirwingle in the crossword community, went above and beyond by trying to see if the cr…

    By Crossguesser , 2 weeks ago

  • RE: Cruciverbiana

    I cannot find the anecdote – perhaps I imagined it! When I searched for stories involving crossword setters and trains, …

    By Doctor Clue , 2 weeks ago