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 August Digest is now published, with Doctor’s Notes, news from the Clinic, and a chance to vote in the monthly poll The PDF of the latest Gemelo puzzle is available at this link: Gemelo 46 Information about the latest changes to the site as of 22/08/26 can be found on the Clinic Refurbishment Status page The Forum is now available for discussion of all things crossword-related The PDF of the latest Azed puzzle is available at this link: Azed 2,782
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Latest Forum Topics/Posts
You may both be quite right.
I found this one actually easier than #45, taking about an hour at a single sitting. As so often, many…
Hi Lambkin If ‘one’ were doing double duty the clue would be unsound, so we must assume that “who’ll join…
Like Alex, I assumed that it had been put in there to enhance the surface reading, with the noun ‘offensive’…
I’ve been reading this site on and off since the advent of Gemelo and I know others have made the…
Hi Jim, I took ‘Offensive’ here to mean ‘awarded for actions during an offensive’ rather than as a dictionary signifier…
‘Offensive’ in 29a has been niggling me. I understand where Gemelo is at. But this is Gemelo-subjective? I share his…
Hi Dr Clue, Another good puzzle. I’m not quite getting your point about ‘who’ versus ‘that’ in 28a – if…
It’s really only the imperative form that’s interesting from a setting point of view, eg in ‘Yank made us interested’…
Fair enough thanks. Is that because ‘yank’ as ‘to move actively’ is (obs. or dialect)? Ironic, though, considering ‘x’ and…
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 , 1 week 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 , 1 week 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 week ago
Cruciverbiana
Do you have any favourite crossword-related anecdotes, either gleaned from others or drawn from your own experience? I…
By Xotic , 2 weeks ago