February 2011 – Page 4 – Fifteensquared

Araucaria’s big celebrations

February 16, 2011 at 7:17 pm by jetdoc

I have uploaded lots of photos of the wonderful party given by the Guardian on the eve of Araucaria’s birthday. It was an honour and a delight to be there. Araucaria party

Financial Times 13,619 by Gozo

February 16, 2011 at 4:19 pmFebruary 16, 2011 at 2:37 pm by PeeDee

An amazingly good crossword, and a fitting tribute to the birthday boy. Here at home the kids are off school today for half term break and my wife is away for the week, so it … Read more >>

Guardian 25,247 / Enigmatist, Paul and Shed

February 16, 2011 at 10:56 am by mhl

I’ll leave no spoilers in this paragraph since it appears on the front page and this is a really special puzzle… This puzzle is a wonderful tribute to Araucaria, whose 90th birthday it … Read more >>

Independent 7593 / Eimi

February 16, 2011 at 10:06 amFebruary 16, 2011 at 9:23 am by Gaufrid

There must be some special occasion today for Dac to be ousted from his regular Wednesday slot. There is! Today is the 90th birthday of The Reverend John Galbraith Graham MBE aka Araucaria … Read more >>

Inquisitor 1163: Common Knowledge by Samuel

February 17, 2011 at 1:13 pmFebruary 16, 2011 at 1:23 am by kenmac

A nice easy preamble for a change. We’re told that six entries are clued without definition and all the other clues generate an extra letter. The extra letters generate a “line”, which identifies … Read more >>

Financial Times 13,618 / Gurney

February 15, 2011 at 5:33 pm by Gaufrid

I don’t know what has prevented Agentzero from blogging today but here is an analysis of the clues. Sorry, no comments from me. I have an optical migraine at the moment and am … Read more >>

Independent 7,592 / Nimrod

February 15, 2011 at 9:00 am by RatkojaRiku

I felt rather out of my depth with Nimrod’s offering this morning. I can only marvel at the hard work and ingenuity that has gone into setting this puzzle and bemoan my own … Read more >>

Guardian 25246 Quantum – Breezy Walk in the Park

February 15, 2011 at 8:45 amFebruary 15, 2011 at 1:48 am by Uncle Yap

Quite a breezy walk in the park from Quantum. Nothing very challenging. ACROSS 1 PRESUMPTIVE *(US REP MET VIP) 9 NORMANS NORM (standard) ANS (answer) 10 RISOTTO *(STIR TOO) 11 UNORDERED dd 12 … Read more >>

Independent 7591 by Radian

February 15, 2011 at 9:42 amFebruary 14, 2011 at 1:19 pm by nmsindy

Excellent puzzle full of references appropriate to the day from Radian, which I found ranged from very easy to quite tricky. Solving times, 27 mins, with the top half much harder than the … Read more >>

Guardian Quiptic 587 / Arachne

February 14, 2011 at 10:16 am by Gaufrid

I cannot comment as to how this puzzle compares with other Quiptics with regard to degree of difficulty because I haven’t solved one since my original blog, published when we first started covering … Read more >>

Guardian 25,245 / Brendan

February 14, 2011 at 9:23 am by Eileen

A delightfully entertaining puzzle from Brendan, with an added diversion at the end, to find the thirteen themed answers referred to in 9ac. I thoroughly enjoyed both the solve, which was not too … Read more >>

Cyclops 436: Smutty innuendo…

February 14, 2011 at 3:16 pmFebruary 13, 2011 at 11:59 pm by jetdoc

… and all the better for it! The usual fun from Cyclops — a relatively quick solve, with nothing too tricky. Across 1 EMBRACES Hugs as Ed Miliband starts getting supporters EM = … Read more >>

Beelzebub 1094

February 13, 2011 at 8:00 am by Jed

Following the lead of some of the others who blog prize crosswords I’ve included the clues. Would welcome feedback to see if it was worth the effort. < reverse ( )* … Read more >>

Independent On Sunday 1095 by Quixote

February 18, 2011 at 8:33 pmFebruary 13, 2011 at 12:05 am by flashling

A fairly easy solve for me, after the previous day’s debacle with Nimrod for which I was quite glad. 12 ac was a new word on me but the anagram and crossing letters led … Read more >>

Azed 2019/a tale of two halves

February 13, 2011 at 1:22 pmFebruary 13, 2011 at 12:01 am by ilancaron

Appropriately enough, very much a tale of two halves for me. But in my case the top and the bottom: 1A came quickly enough and thus the top half. I stared at the … Read more >>