Digest – May 2026
Doctor’s Notes
This month marks one year since Doctors Clue and Cluelittle first met at the Azed 2,750 celebrations in Oxford, when Doctor Cluelittle first heard of the Clue Clinic over tea and scones with cream and jam (or was it jam and cream?) generously laid on by the Crowther family.
For Doctor Cluelittle, this site soon became an indispensable aid and she asked if she could join the practice. Having just finished a course in crossword anatomy, she brought with her a pair of fresh eyes, a listening ear, and a willingness to lend a hand, which complemented Doctor Clue’s diagnostic insights, surgical precision, and years of medical experience. With the clinic’s team now 100% larger, momentum for a refurbishment project began to build – more on that below.
This month also brought another milestone, as the Clue Clinic received its 3,000th comment (from John Atkinson, a regular on the site since 2021). It’s always a joy to see your comments, and this milestone provides a good excuse to thank you all for your engagement and support. The Doctors look forward to seeing more discussions in the Forum (coming soon).
Clinical Observations
May was a bumper month with five barred puzzles from the Observer:
- Azed 2,779: Plain, 2.5/5 difficulty. A clue mentioning red underwear wasn’t quite backed up by the Big Red Book.
- Gemelo 33: Plain, 2.6/5. Hobnobs, Hearts and Citizen Kane – this puzzle had something for everyone and received a couple of LOLs from satisfied solvers, though Dr Clue was not content with “content” as a contents indicator.
- Gemelo 34: Plain, 3/5. This puzzle attracted a fair few comments, including discussions of singular/plural anagram indicators and how hyphenated clues should be enumerated. If you have a view on the latter point, take a look at the poll below.
- Gemelo 35: Special ‘Bonus Shares’, 4.4/5. Cruciverbal Marmite, with one commenter calling this “the best Gemelo yet” while others found it too gimmicky.
- Gemelo 36: Plain. If you’ve completed the puzzle, don’t forget to give it a difficulty rating so we know how you got on.
Clinic Refurbishment Project
May saw the first swathe of enhancements implemented, as part of our ongoing Clinic Refurbishment Project. These included a new layout for the home page, an expanded About This Site page to aid orientation, and more intuitive options for you to comment and interact with the clinicians.
The Doctors have further enhancements up their sleeves (rolled up for reasons of hygiene, of course), including making the Clinical Data lists more user-friendly, and re-launching the discussion forum. Updates will be shared on the Refurbishment Project Status page; this is also where you can comment on changes to the site – prior or planned. Please do share your reactions, questions or suggestions – we want to make the site as useful and intuitive as possible, so your feedback is most welcome.
Ready, Get Setting, Go!
A call to action for any would-be setters among you. Big Dave’s Crossword Site has an area called Rookie Corner which supports up-and-coming setters; several Rookies have gone on to create puzzles for national newspapers and the Clinic’s own Dr Cluelittle is a recent ‘graduate’.
Each puzzle submitted is published, reviewed and commented on by solvers, giving new setters a fantastic opportunity to receive feedback and hone their skills. The Rookie Corner queue is currently empty, so for those of you dreaming of being the next Azed or Gemelo, we strongly encourage you to submit. Email bdSubmissions@outlook.com to express interest and find out more.
Poll of the Month
There was some recent discussion on the blog for Gemelo 34 about the enumerations used in most barred puzzles (including Azed and Gemelo) for answers shown by Chambers as either being hyphenated or comprising multiple words. Currently the answer DOUBLE BASS would be enumerated as (6,4) in a blocked puzzle, but (10, 2 words) in a barred puzzle; ONE-SIDED would be shown as (3-5) in a blocked puzzle but (8) in a barred puzzle. Over to you…