March 2008 – Page 2 – Fifteensquared

Independent 6690 by Dac

Wed March 26, 2008 at 9:58 am by nmsindy

Very tough today, and some excellent misdirection by Dac. Solving time, 39 mins. A little rushed today- one not fully understood yet, but verified using ‘Reveal’ that I got it right. * = … Read more >>

Guardian 24,236 Araucaria – Mano A Mano

Wed March 26, 2008 at 10:43 amWed March 26, 2008 at 9:21 am by neildubya

<Insert my usual hero-worshipping gush about how great Araucaria is here> <Insert my usual slight whinge about clues that require obsolete copies of Roget’s Thesaurus here > ACROSS 1 PITTA – It’s usually … Read more >>

Financial Times 12,725 (Cinephile)

Wed March 26, 2008 at 8:46 am by diagacht

Across 1 VERBAL: hidden in oVERBALance 5 PERISHED: PERI + SHED 9 STRAIGHT: double definition 10,29 BREATHTAKING: &Lit 12 HONORARY: NOR (and not) in HOARY 14 WATER BUFFALO: anagram of WAFFLER ABOUT 18 … Read more >>

Not about crosswords (again)

Thu October 30, 2008 at 1:32 pmWed March 26, 2008 at 8:37 am by neildubya

A year ago today I posted a message to this blog saying that my wife had just given birth to our first child. This was him then: And here he is now: Happy … Read more >>

Independent 6689/Merlin

Tue March 25, 2008 at 12:51 pm by John

I didn’t do this quickly, although looking at it now I bet some people did. One problem was that I wrote an answer in the wrong place, and when I transferred it to … Read more >>

Financial Times / 12724 by Jason

Tue March 25, 2008 at 4:44 pmTue March 25, 2008 at 10:31 am by C G Rishikesh

I took longer to solve this puzzle than the others that I have done here before. To tell the truth, I have all except 18dn (where, of course, I can guess the second … Read more >>

Guardian 24345/Gordius – The Pope’s a rapist?

Tue March 25, 2008 at 10:47 amTue March 25, 2008 at 8:57 am by ilancaron

A mix of the easy and the hard. I had to trawl Google a bit here and there. Finding one of my answers on this very site (see 24A). Questions about some of … Read more >>

Guardian 24344/Rufus

Mon March 24, 2008 at 5:17 pmMon March 24, 2008 at 3:17 pm by linxit

Solving time 14:43 I raced through the top half in a couple of minutes, but then struggled with the bottom half and really struggled with the SE corner. Nothing particularly difficult and all … Read more >>

Independent No 6688 by Punk

Mon March 24, 2008 at 12:57 pm by NealH

* = anag, < = reversed, () = dropped The bird theme made this crossword the easiest Monday puzzle for some time, but the clues were all well-constructed and there were some good … Read more >>

Inquisitor 63: 20 Across by Schadenfreude

Sun March 23, 2008 at 10:08 pm by petebiddlecombe

Solving time: about an hour I solved a fair number of clues cold and then wondered what was going on, but then saw that all the answers with different lengths to the grid … Read more >>

Azed 1868 – Carte Blanche

Sun March 23, 2008 at 10:13 pmSun March 23, 2008 at 4:30 pm by petebiddlecombe

Solving time: about 2 hours – with one answer wrong, it turns out I forgot I was down to blog this, so solved it today. I can’t remember whether we’ve had a 13×11 … Read more >>

Guardian 24,337 (Sat 15 Mar)/Brummie – Called to the Bar

Tue March 25, 2008 at 10:57 amSat March 22, 2008 at 9:43 pm by rightback

Solving time: lost. A nice change from Araucaria, and a pretty standard Guardian puzzle with nothing too difficult, although a couple of harder words; 3dn held me up the most. There’s also a … Read more >>

Guardian 24342/Chifonie

Fri March 21, 2008 at 3:32 pmFri March 21, 2008 at 1:17 pm by linxit

Solving time 9:09 A pretty straightforward puzzle from Chifonie today – I don’t often finish non-Rufus Guardian puzzles in under 10 minutes. Still, there were some good clues and a few less familiar … Read more >>

Independent 6686/Eimi

Fri March 21, 2008 at 9:38 pmFri March 21, 2008 at 1:05 pm by John

So now we see why Phi was on Tuesday: Eimi had ready a nice 28ac crossword. I hesitate to say that it was tough, but it took me ages, and some of the … Read more >>

Independent 6681/Math

Fri March 21, 2008 at 11:30 am by neildubya

I wonder if anyone will solve this without realising there’s a theme? There are a number of 6d 14a in the grid (highlighted in bold below) as well as in almost every clue, along … Read more >>