Month: December 2014

Guardian Quiptic 787 Pan

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(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)   A typical Quitic, good as an … Read more >>

Cambridge S & B – now confirmed: 25 April 2015

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We are delighted to announce that there will be a Sloggers & Betters meeting in Cambridge next spring. The date is Saturday 25 April 2015, the venue a nice pub:   The Castle Inn.

So far, 25+ cruciverbalists showed their interest with a clear “yes!”. If you changed your mind or if you want to add your name to the list of potential attendees, please be so kind to tell us here at Fifteensquared, now or at a later point (closer to the date).   Having said that, everyone’s welcome, at any stage, even at the last minute.

Details (how to get there, food, parking etc) will be given later.

Meanwhile, we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The world is a turbulent place, also one to be treasured.

Sil, Phil (aka Flashling), Jon (aka Rorschach)

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Beelzebub 1,292

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I’d hesitate to suggest that Beelzebub was getting easier, but it does seem like the last handful of weeks have been relatively painless. This one went in smoothly in one session, with a … Read more >>

AZED 2,218

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A plain puzzle for the December competition, although no doubt the Christmas special will be rather more complex.

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Guardian Prize 26,436 / Paul

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An enjoyable puzzle from Paul, with some typical Pauline clues – and this time I’m not talking risqué. I found it pretty straightforward, apart from the parsing of 16dn, which took about as … Read more >>

Independent 8,787 by Phi

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As usual with Phi I was a little slow to get started as few answers seemed to be obvious, but once going it all seemed clear enough. And then I came to a long halt with the last three, 21ac, 19dn and 22dn, which wouldn’t budge. The somewhat unusual sense of ‘clipped’ is my excuse; although it isn’t perhaps all that unusual, being the first item in the second Chambers definition.

In the end it was the usual very pleasant Phi experience. Lots of single-letter abbreviations here: is this a theme? (l = league, d = depth, f = farthing, n = note, E = European, r = runs, h = hard, n = name, m = millions, o = old, s = son, again n = note, and perhaps others I’ve missed.)

The unches at the top and the bottom spell out two words which no doubt send us to some series of books that escape my experience.

Definitions underlined.

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Financial Times 14,803 by BRADMAN

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It is Friday, and it is Bradman at the FT so no surprises there. The Don serves up another delectable offering with an excellent mix of smooth surfaces and ingenious constructions. Quite an enjoyable solve with the SE quadrant nearly being a showstopper for me. There are a couple of clues though which I have a minor quibble about but nothing significant.

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