December 2019 – Page 6 – Fifteensquared

Independent 10,345 by Filbert

Mon December 9, 2019 at 9:00 am by NealH

An excellent puzzle with some great surface definitions.

Guardian Quiptic 1047 Anto

Mon December 9, 2019 at 10:58 amMon December 9, 2019 at 8:38 am by scchua

Thanks to Anto. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Reserve able to control movements in very large area (12) SUBCONTINENT : SUB(short for “substitute”/a reserve player in a competitive team) + … Read more >>

Guardian 27,999 – Vulcan

Mon December 9, 2019 at 9:11 amMon December 9, 2019 at 8:00 am by Andrew

The usual Monday mixture from Vulcan: some nice clues, but also a couple that at distinctly on the weak side. Thanks to Vulcan. I wonder if tomorrow’s puzzle number 30,000 will bring something … Read more >>

Private Eye (Cyclops/665) Offensive Utterance

Mon December 9, 2019 at 6:00 am by beermagnet

One of those Eye puzzles that I found difficult to finish despite getting most of it early on. In my notes I marked 16 as solved on first reading. 1d was a lovely … Read more >>

General Discussion

Thu October 1, 2020 at 5:15 pmSun December 8, 2019 at 7:04 pm by Admin

This page is for the discussion of general crossword related matters and other topics of interest. Comments posted before 6/1/20 can be found here. This post is now closed. New comments can be … Read more >>

Independent on Sunday 1,554 by Silvanus

Sun December 8, 2019 at 4:01 pmSun December 8, 2019 at 12:47 pm by Kitty

The puzzle can be found here. Hi everyone. Thanks to Silvanus for today’s entertainment, and apologies for this blog being a little later than usual. I slept in after a very long … Read more >>

Guardian Genius 197 / Soup

Sun December 8, 2019 at 12:05 am by Gaufrid

A tricky one this month that took me far longer to solve than a puzzle in this series normally does. The instruction was clear enough: ll vwls hv bn rmvd frm bth cls nd … Read more >>

Azed 2477

Sun December 8, 2019 at 12:05 am by Andrew

The last competition puzzle before the Chrtistmas special, and a fairly gentle one (after the initial hurdle of it not being available on the website till Monday). Thanks to Azed. … Read more >>

Everyman 3,816

Sun December 8, 2019 at 12:01 am by PeterO

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3816. Everyman is mostly on a back-to-basics kick this week, although there is the &lit clue at 9A NERVOUS TIC, where the entire clue doubles as definition … Read more >>

Independent 10,344 by Klingsor

Sat December 7, 2019 at 8:07 am by Bertandjoyce

An enjoyable solve today with a couple of definitions which needed checking. There were a couple which had us scratching our head due to clever misdirections until we suddenly realised that A = … Read more >>

Guardian Prize 27,992 / Picaroon

Sat December 7, 2019 at 8:15 pmSat December 7, 2019 at 12:02 am by Eileen

Our crossword Editor continues to surprise us: after a week without a Paul puzzle, it seemed that he must be going to slip into the Prize slot for the second week running [which … Read more >>

Enigmatic Variations No.1410 – G&T by Xanthippe

Sat December 7, 2019 at 4:33 pmSat December 7, 2019 at 12:01 am by Mister Sting

“In G&T, clues are given in two groups headed by the two numbered wordplay-only clues. Within each group, the clues are given in the normal order and either the clue (starred), or answer, requires thematic treatment, always involving a single letter. All answers and entries are real words, numbers in brackets refer to entry lengths. Solvers must highlight 11 letters in the completed grid and write two thematic words (10, 8) under the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”