Twelve months have passed and again we come to the end of another year so it is time for me to offer my thanks to everyone on the Fifteensquared team for the sterling work they have put in to create the blogs, and to those who have taken the time to add the comments that so enrich this site.
It has been a very good cryptic year so my thanks also to all the setters, and their editors, for the enjoyment they have provided. Long may it continue.
Finally, to all the lurkers out there, I would just say why not join in the discussions next year and provide yet more valuable input to the site, we don’t bite (well not very often!).
All the best to everyone for 2018,
Geoff
Many thanks to you Geoff for all the work you do to keep this wonderful site running. It has been an invaluable help to me over the years.
It’s a great site, and many thanks to Geoff/Gaufrid for maintaining it so well.
Thanks also to setters, bloggers and fellow posters.
Happy New Year!
Will try to look in again a bit more in future.
Many thanks Geoff. A Very Happy New Year to you and to all setters, bloggers, commenters and lurkers.
Geoff, you manage a wonderul site for all of us – thank you, and thank you to all the magnificent bloggers.
I rarely post under the blogs because I’m aways in arrears with the puzzles! But the blogs are invaluable for the clues which I can’t quite parse.
To all bloggers, posters, lurkers, setters and Geoff, best wishes for a happy new year.
Blimey – another year gone so soon?
Happy New Year to all and thanks to all bloggers and commenters who make this site such a great place – thanks also to Geoff for keeping the ship sailing in calm seas and for all the work he does behind the scenes in crossworld.
Roll on 2018 and some more super-doper crossword goodness! 🙂
Thanks and a happy New year to everyone!
Many thanks from the other side of the world for all you do, Geoff/Gaufrid. The site gives so much enjoyment to and supplies “brainfood” for the many cryptic solvers in the puzzling community. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.
In 2017 this American attempted his first ever cryptic, and would have been one and done if not for the truly lovely fifteensquared community. A few months later, I am happy to say that I can make a reasonable dent in the puzzles created by most of the setters (there are certainly some exceptions!) and, more to the point, thoroughly enjoy each day’s outing in the Indy. My only wish is that there would be more cryptics available on the ipad Crosswords app each day. I get the Telegraph, but without this community I don’t learn from the experience and I find that I rarely spend much time on it. If anyone can direct me to how I might download puz or jpz files for the Guardian, FT, or Inquisitor, I’d be most appreciative! Barring that, happy new year and a hearty thanks to all our setters, bloggers, commentators, and lurkers!
Oren @9
I’m pleased to hear that you are enjoying 15² and that it has helped you to persevere and progress with solving cryptic puzzles. You mention the Telegraph, so I would draw your attention to this site which blogs these puzzles each day.
The Inquisitor is not available online in any format and, so far as I am aware, the FT puzzles are only available as a pdf. I don’t know about the Guardian because I don’t have a mobile device and consequently no solving apps.
Thank you all for a splendid blog. It is much appreciated. Happy New Year.
Thank you Gaufrid for everything that you do, fifteensquared is a marvelous site.
All the best to everyone for 2018.
I get a lot from this site – I don’t post very often but the blog presentation and parsing explanations are excellent – thank you
Oren@9
I don’t think the Guardian makes its puzzles downloadable in those formats but it does have the puzzles on its website (https://www.theguardian.com/) with a web based solving app. There is also a Guardian app, which includes both the “paper” and the crosswords in a solving app. We use the Android version but an iOs version is also available. Of course there is no obligation to read the paper. ?
We two (Mrs PB and I) also started attempting Guardian cryptics regularly last year; we wonder how we will fare without Rufus as our once a week usually solvable one. We have been lurking here to get help and have found it very valuable; thanks to Gaufrid and all that actively contribute.
Thanks to Gaufrid, the team of bloggers, and commenters. After 50+ years of my doing the Guardian crossword my son introduced me to this site and it has added another, pleasurable dimension to the experience. Happy New Year to all and Keeeeeeep Solving.
Many thanks Gaufrid for all your input, and a Happy New Year to all compilers, contributors and lurkers.
I’m probably likely to remain a bit of a lurker but on this occasion, I wanted to say thank you for your very useful explanations. I’ve learnt a few things this year. Have a good 2018
As another semi-lurked let me add my thanks to Gaufrid, setters, bloggers, and commenters for a most enjoyable site, and one that can sometimes relieve serious frustration, even if at the cost of an almighty “Doh!”.
Thanks, Gaufrid. Happy New Year to All
Dear Gaufrid
I have been attending Lurkers Anon. for some time and find myself ready to respond. Unfortunately, by the time I complete the crossword everyone has already blogged my thoughts and gone home. Thanks to this site I am improving, but I just wish you all would stop saying how easy you find the bloody things when it takes me hours :o(
Best wishes for the New Year to all.
To ChrisP@20…
Keep on keeping on! It’s not a contest & I feel as you do, most of the time (& I’m s’posed to be a blogger, Pete’s sake).
Heartfelt thanks again to Gaufrid, his genius and constant help and forbearance. This is a lovely site. Happy New Year to all.
I too am a lurker but enjoy reading the blog and thank you all for your efforts. The FT is my more or less daily dose – I’ve been doing cryptics for about five years now and can usually finish the task if I really put my mind to it. The problem I have with some of the comments on the site is that they can make me feel very inadequate. The “I managed to do it in 35 minutes” type observations are just a bit off-putting. You know who you are that do it, including one blogger.
But thanks again and best wishes for 2018
Thanks so much, Mr PB @14 – I’ll give the guardian app a go. Most helpful!
I’ve recently realised that I’ve been doing daily cryptics for nearly 60 years. For a lot of that time I wished that when the solutions appeared there could be some sort of commentary as well. Then by accident I discovered fifteensquared; I was stuck for one word to complete the Indy puzzle one day; I had all the crossing letters, of course, and eventually I worked out something to fit, even though it didn’t appear to be a genuine word. Anyway I googled my supposed word and to my surprise, yes it was a word. And the first reference Google gave was to that day’s 15sq blog! I can’t even remember what the word was now, but 15sq has been a real joy ever since. And through the S&B gatherings it mentions I’ve met not only fellow-solvers but setters as well, and even tried my hand at setting. I wouldn’t be without it now, so thank you, Gaufrid, and keep up the good work.
I found this site soon after I made the daily Guardian cryptic my crossword of choice 3 or 4 years ago. My enjoyment of the crosswords increased when I got into the habit of reading, and commenting from time to time, on this site. What were probably my best ‘crossword’ experiences came in the last year or two when I met a few of the setters: that happened only because of this site.
Thank you Geoff for the sterling work you do to keep such a high-quality site going, and thanks also to the team of bloggers who give their time to it.
I, too, am a lurker. I never feel the need to comment as anything I might want to say has already been said! I do value the site, though, it gives me so many aha moments (and sometimes even wtf?! ones), I will never again be fooled by flowers, I hope… So thank you to all of the setters, bloggers and commentators and Happy New Year to all of you!
Have to add my thanks for all the hard work you do to make this site the excellent resource it is, Gaufrid.
Sorry not to have contributed much recently – have had various problems, not helped by my having been floored with a nasty virus in the last couple of weeks. Have missed being part of the Fifteensquared community & hope to remedy this soon.
Best wishes to you all for 2018.
Happy New Year, and thanks to everyone who puts in so much hard work into the site, particularly Geoff.
And on behalf of the idothei community of solvers, bloggers and commenters, enormous thanks for letting us plunder your archives on a daily basis, as the Indy puzzles get recycled 3 or 4 years later – what a resource!
Many many thanks, Geoff, for all your hard work over the years. 15^2 is a fantastic resource for the crossword community. Long may it continue! Thanks also to the bloggers for the excellent analyses of the puzzles and to everyone who takes the time to solve and comment on them.
Jason
Brilliant site which has been of great help to a novice such as myself – very many thanks!
PS: I completely agree with ChrisP@20
Hear, hear and chin-chin to one and all for 2018, and especially to Gaufrid for keeping everything oiled so it runs smoothly.
Way late but couldn’t let the thought go by: thanks and many thanks to Gaufrid for this excellent portal to civilisation. Best wishes for 2018.
I realise this comment will be very late on the site but I must express my appreciation for the site and the people involved
I have done the Guardian crossword for a number of years but did not always understand the parsing until I stumbled across this site. Living in New Zealand means a slightly different time zone (some would add lto the rest of the world” here) so I do not get the puzzle until around noon (depending on daylight saving times) which means completing it is an afternoon activity. Then I read the blog at breakfast the next day to explain everything. I only comment if I feel something has been missed or for strong reinforcement of an opinion.
I am a “gentleman “ solver in that I do it for enjoyment and the time involved is unimportant. As is whether I actually get it completed (although I do manage most) so coming here is for elucidation and amusement. There is so much I do not know and I am always impressed by the depth of knowledge of many of you.
So thanks all and bets wishes for the year.
To join the chorus, thanks so much Gaufrid. As the cookie monster knows, I visit often even if I post rarely. It’s always a pleasure to read the blogs and comments – I learn and laugh in equal measure – so best for the new year, all.
As always we are a bit late here, but thank you Gaufrid for another good year. You run a fantastic website helped by excellent bloggers.