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 July Digest is now live, providing a short round-up of news and views from the Clinic. The PDF of the latest Gemelo puzzle is available at this link: Gemelo 42 The PDF of the latest Azed puzzle is available at this link: Azed 2,781
Latest Posts
Latest Comments
Hi Alex I think the ‘fairness to solvers’ argument is often used to support a general statement relating to a…
I had not come across the term ‘letter bank’ before – it appears to have been coined by Will Shortz,…
Although I solve few cryptics, preferring to dedicate my efforts to setting, I have nonetheless encountered the occasional “letter bank”…
Hi Doc, thanks for your answer to my query about secondary anagram indicators (Gemelo 41). Your explanation and examples helped…
I’m always embarrassed by the number of Scottish words – more of a thing for Azed, it feels – of…
Thanks, Iain – your second vote will have replaced the first one, so all is good. In 16d the first…
You can remove my 2 rating if you like. It occurred when I was grubbing around with my mouse, not…
Hi Alastair. For me, another challenge is that I have never heard of at least 50% of words in an…
Thanks for the link, Jim. It may well be considered cheating but I am only an average crossword solver and…
It does, thanks. I was increasingly questionning the I at the end but only because it’s not a common last…