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
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😀 Fair point! Perhaps I should have said that 6d was once solid but is now liquid…
Well, thank-you for the education. I hadn’t even considered ‘take’ might come into it.
Hi Alastair ‘Take’ = ‘recipe’ (Latin) = R; it used to be something of a staple in crosswords, but it…
I’m pretty sure I have the answer for 32a, and I see where the anagram of “degree” comes from, but…
Notable points – Mensa’s local football team of course, but ‘London’s Burning’ and a synonym for 20a made me think…
The wordplay is a charade of a three-letter word for a school – of whales – and the middle letter…
I think I’ve got the answer to 28d – a word that can mean “business”, but I can’t figure out…
In my view, there shouldn’t be a problem, on the basis that clues are written in a horizontal direction and…
I see that “by” is listed as a juxtaposition indicator but only for across clues. Could you please explain what…
Very helpful Doc, thank you. As well as not seeing the anagram at 32, I had got (understandably ?🙂) stuck…
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 , 1 month 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