March 2009 – Fifteensquared

Financial Times 13,039 / Armonie

Tue March 31, 2009 at 1:09 pm by Agentzero

Apologies for the late-ish blog. I was hoping to do this last night before going to bed but the puzzle was not posted on the website at the usual time. Across 1 FAREWELL … Read more >>

Independent 7,006/Dac

Tue March 31, 2009 at 11:53 am by Ali

Was it just me being tired from having stayed up late watching The Wire last night, or was some of this quite hard for a Dac puzzle? The middle of the grid didn’t … Read more >>

Guardian 24,661 – Paul

Tue March 31, 2009 at 7:09 am by Uncle Yap

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram The conventional approach to solving a clue … Read more >>

Independent 7005 by Radian

Mon March 30, 2009 at 12:17 pm by NealH

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def My initial thought on seeing this puzzle was that the theme would be something like the Taming of the Shrew, so I set off with a mental … Read more >>

Guardian 24,660/Araucaria

Mon March 30, 2009 at 10:53 am by Andrew

A rare Monday outing for Araucaria, and a puzzle that was mostly fairly easy, though with a couple of shaky definitions and some dubious wordplay. The grid is a bit strange, being almost … Read more >>

Private Eye/Cyclops 387 – Spluttering bile in springtime

Mon March 30, 2009 at 12:15 am by beermagnet

I enjoyed this and didn’t find it as hard as last time. How hard anyone finds a puzzle must vary not just from puzzle to puzzle and person to person but also depends … Read more >>

Azed 1921 – Eightsome Reels

Sun March 29, 2009 at 8:12 pm by Andrew

The scheduled blogger is unavailable, so I’m acting as sub with this rather brief effort. The “Eightsome Reels” idea was invented by Azed and pops up from time to time. Peter has again … Read more >>

Guardian 24,653 (Sat 21 Mar)/Gordius – The splice of life

Sat March 28, 2009 at 6:00 am by rightback

Solving time: 11:08 A rare Saturday outing for Gordius, which I think was of about the same level of difficulty as his occasional weekday puzzles. Some clever stuff here with a good sprinkling … Read more >>

Independent 7003 by Phi

Fri March 27, 2009 at 11:45 am by nmsindy

Quite an easy puzzle from Phi, I thought, getting quite a bit from definitions, verifying wordplay later. Solving time, 15 mins. * = anagram < = reversed 1 TIME S H(E)ET 6 STUB … Read more >>

Independent 6998/Math (Prize puzzle 21-03-09)

Fri March 27, 2009 at 10:49 am by neildubya

A fitting theme for a puzzle that appeared the day before 4. A couple of clues make reference to “ladies of tomorrow”, or “ladies celebrated on Sunday”, and there are a number of … Read more >>

Financial Times 13,036 / Viking

Fri March 27, 2009 at 6:23 pmFri March 27, 2009 at 10:39 am by shuchi

I found this puzzle tough to start with but it got better when then the anagrams fell into place. 9A and 21A were my favourites, also enjoyed the reversals at 28A and 31A. … Read more >>

Beelzebub 996 (22/03/09)

Wed April 1, 2009 at 1:56 amFri March 27, 2009 at 10:30 am by Simon Harding

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. A typically excellent Beelzebub, with some especially nice surface readings. I’ve managed to explain them all this week, which may actually be a first! Across … Read more >>