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142 comments on “General Discussion”
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Something that might be of interest to anyone who enjoyed Ludwig (or didn’t enjoy Ludwig but none the less likes the sound of a crossword-themed crime drama): Radio 4 Extra are currently repeating a 2007 series called One Down, with a story that revolves around a mysterious crossword that appears in a local paper.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007snj3/episodes/player
The writer is Alison Joseph. I don’t know if she has any cryptic crossword pedigree but she seems to know what she’s doing – One Down appears to be based on an authentic cryptic crossword, with sound clues that can actually be solved, which adds a fun dimension to the listening experience.
Thanks Widdersbel.
I’ve listened to the first two episodes and it seems pretty good so far.
At the end of episode 2 the announcer said the puzzle was on-line but I couldn’t find it.
It’s here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/T9NC2mZknpYt0Jbz0sjhZZ/one-down-the-crossword
Thanks @3.
I’ll wait and do after listening to all 5 episodes
Thanks for that, Widdersbel. I hope to get round to giving it a go.
Thanks for the link, Twmbarlwm – I also couldn’t find it.
Eileen – I wouldn’t call it essential listening but it’s a nice bit of fun.
Thursday 14th Nov, Guardian crossword website pages are not appearing, but you can use this link to get the pdf version
https://crosswords-static.guim.co.uk/gdn.cryptic.20241114.pdf
Indded, by changing the date at the end of that url you can get other day’s crosswords too
Eg for yesterday’s
https://crosswords-static.guim.co.uk/gdn.cryptic.20241113.pdf
Jason Crampton (aka Jack in the Guardian – see today’s prize puzzle) just posted on X …
“Today’s will be my last Guardian puzzle for the foreseeable future as I’m thrilled to be taking on the role of Times Crossword Editor from 2 December.”
That’s a significant role, and I’m sure Guardian solvers will miss Jack, but many congratulations to Jason. Perhaps we’ll continue to see appearances from Serpent and Basilisk.
…and perhaps the clue to 18d in today’s puzzle was a hint 🙂
Is there yet any answer to the mystery of who set Guardian puzzle 29,514 under the name of Omnibus? The only previous Guardian puzzle under that name appeared in 2005, and that was compiled by Sandy Balfour from clues submitted by readers. (Interestingly one of the clues in the recent Omnibus contains the name Balfour.)
I haven’t noticed any announcement of the identity of the recent setter(s), in Alan Connor’s blog or elsewhere, but have I missed something?
Jay@8: Perhaps we’ll continue to see appearances from Serpent and Basilisk I’m afraid not. As Times editor, sadly jason cannot set for any other publication which rules out Indy and FT too.
Guardian site has (temporarily?) blocked comments on Cryptic today and is forcing folks to sign up for their newsletter.
Even if you sign up, there is no way to post comment!
ilippu @11 – it looks as if comments are switched off on the Guardian today – I subscribe, have an account and get several newsletters, and I can’t see any comments either.
And I may have an answer as to why comments on the Guardian are closed – see here – there’s a NUJ strike which “may affect the Guardian website on Wednesday and Thursday” protesting a deal being negotiated for the sale of the Observer, which I suspect will affect the Everyman and Azed – how they are accessed and whether the Guardian crossword editor continues producing the Everyman.
Comments in general are not open all across the Guardian website today – I’d guess this is because of the strike and will probably be the same tomorrow.
If the sale goes ahead in its proposed form, the new owners plan to take the Observer behind a paywall – including, presumably, the distinctively Observer crosswords: Everyman, Speedy and Azed. What will happen to the Quiptic, currently published on Sunday but with its origins in the Guardian stable, isn’t clear.
Thanks to Shanne yesterday, I didn’t twig what was going on, but I’ve just finished Picaroon’s latest and it is brilliant. Look forward to the comments in the morning.
And Tortoise has bought the Observer.
What with Jay Rayner leaving the Observer for the paywalled Financial Times and now Everyman also potentially disappearing behind a paywall, things are a bit grim for the less financially advantaged amongst us. One of the things I like about the Guardian is that I can (and do) make a monthly contribution that I can afford. My Sundays would be diminished without Jay and Everyman.
I suspect the movement of the Quiptic to Sundays is part of the Guardian preparing for this – because the Guardian is going to continue to publish online 7 days a week. That happened when the bid discussions were in the public domain.
Widdersbel@1 et al, does anyone recall Oliver’s Travels, a tv series by Alan Player starring Sinead Cusack and Alan Bates? It prominently featured cryptic crosswords by a fictional setter named Aristotle, and the solutions were integral to the plot. It is one of my all-time favourite shows.
Since Alan O’Connor assumed the Everyman role, there have been many complaints on this site about his puzzles, mainly about the alleged inconsistency of their degree of difficulty. With the impending sale of the Observer I wonder how many of those complainers will now bemoan the disappearance of Everyman behind the paywall.
Shanne makes a good point @19. We will still have a daily Guardian puzzle – we’ll go from Prize/Everyman to Prize/Quiptic on the weekend. (Just no double-dose on Sunday.) We are still blessed with excellent puzzles for our daily enjoyment, although I will miss Everyman.
I do have to confess to having a vested interest but I’d point out that the Indy on Sunday is also available as an option for those potentially deprived of their Observer fix.
Postmark @22 – I’d complete the Indy more regularly if I Iiked the online crossword program, but I find it not worth the hassle more often than not. Particularly as I know you’re a setter.
The FT also produce a series of Sunday crosswords – World, News, US and numbers. The first two are definitely worth doing.
Shutting down comments in Guardian is a feature and not a bug. To folks like me, 225 blog being too late to say anything useful because of our time zone, commenting there is the only form of sharing our experience. I guess, we have to be grateful for the free puzzle, and not look at gift horse in the mouth. Boatman today works his theme well.
Widdersbel@1 thanks for that link, I enjoyed the series (especially the process of trying to cold solve a clue in my head, which i found much harder than on paper!), Cellomaniac@20 no, or rather, not yet, i hope to find it online somewhere, thanks for the recommendation!
Shanne @23: I’ve seen such feedback before and am not really sure what the problem is. i click on the Independent link on 225 and it takes me straight to the Indy site. There is a 10-15 second ad – I make sure the sound is off but it’s shorter than most ads on, say, YouTube. And then I am into the puzzle. Occasionally I need to enter settings to toggle off the ‘jump over existing letters’ (ie crossers) setting but that’s only once in a blue moon. I solve on a laptop rather than a mobile so cannot speak for the latter experience. But I really don’t find it any more difficult to access than any of the other GIFT puzzles.
Postmark @25 – I’ve only solved the Independent crossword on a mobile, often travelling. I have found it crashes regularly: if I open another tab to check a reference or whether a word exists, going through a tunnel, stopping to answer a question… And then I have to go through opening everything and the advert again. What made me give up was the advert I kept seeing on repeat: I guess it came from the Israeli government and was a justification of Israeli actions in Palestine.
Thanks Shanne. I appreciate I have the advantage of not trying to solve on the move. I have not seen the advert to which you refer but I’d agree that the advert content is a bit of a pain but I guess I’ve learned to ignore it. The adverts are what funds the provision of a free to solve crossword so they have a role; I have certainly wished they could stick to passive or ‘non-mobile’ ads. A lot of fast-moving action playing out to one side of the solve is certainly distracting but at least does not interfere with the mechanics of solving. Thanks for coming back to me.
There being no comments below Friday’s Cryptic, is there anywhere we can discuss the Prize?
@29
I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Can you provide more details?
The Comments section under Friday’s Guardian Cryptic is usually left open for discussion of Saturday’s Prize and Sunday’s Everyman. The Comments section did not appear again on Friday, so there is no forum in the Guardian for such discussion this weekend. I wondered if there might be such a place.
@31
We have no control over The Guardian’s website. Because The Guardian’s Saturday puzzle is a prize puzzle, we don’t publish our blog until after the closing date for entries.
Same is true for Everyman but I’m not sure that it is (or ever was) a prize puzzle.
Any discussions of live puzzles on this site is discouraged and may even result in a ban.
Terms and conditions for the Guardian Prize and Everyman Crosswords
To enter the Prize Draw for the ‘Everyman’ crossword series you must print out your completed crossword and send it to The Observer, PO Box 17566, Birmingham, B33 3EZ. Competition entries for the latest Everyman crossword must be postmarked not later than the Saturday night after the puzzle is published.
Please include a covering note with your name and contact details so that you can be contacted if you win.
The first five correct solutions opened from the Prize Draw for the ‘Everyman’ crossword series will receive £15 in book tokens. GNM accepts no responsibility for any costs associated with the prize that are not expressly included in the prize.
Last Sunday’s FT puzzle no 71 stumped me. When will the blog come out?
Rovrum@29: on Saturday 14th, once the strike was over, the Guardian opened comments for the Friday cryptic, and one or two people did leave comments on both the Friday cryptic and Saturday Prize puzzles. There will of course be nothing here until Saturday 21st.
This is in reply to Jane E@26 on the “End of Year” post.
I don’t get the print paper any more so don’t know where today’s Maskarade is there. You may need to print the pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2024/dec/20/prize-crossword-no-29572
I wish it was do-able on the web page or the app.
There’s an article about puzzles in general by Alan Connor in today’s Saturday Guardian in a Puzzle Supplement, that might interest people here.
Has anyone managed to access the Inquisitor through the i website since they revamped it? I used to view the puzzle through the online edition of the paper on the website, but the puzzles are now in a separate supplement which isn’t included in this online version and doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else on the website.
If you don’t get round to reading the whole article mentioned by Shanne @37 – or don’t have time to register – you may be interested to know that the photograph illustrating it is of Victoria Godfrey, the Guardian’s Carpathian and the Indy’s Vigo.
Charlie @38: I have a subscription to the online version and I have found Inquisitor without too much difficulty on page “308” (which is page viii of the eight page Puzzles “pullout” section, apparently).
Hi all
I’m relatively new to the cryptic game, but have found that attempting to write clues helps me learn conventions, tricks etc., and I’ve just written (constructed?) my first cryptic as a Christmas present to a family who are all far more accomplished than me – in the spirit of yuletide solidarity, would anyone be up for having a go at it and giving some constructive criticism? My email is richbewley@hotmail.com, send me an email, and i’ll reply with a pdf version
Best
Raisin Boy
Today’s Observer has a 20-page puzzles special which includes a giant festive-themed crossword from James Brydon (aka Picaroon). It’s very good, as you’d expect! But it’s print only, not online, so best get down to a newsagent quick before they shut.
If you can’t find today’s Prize crossword, it’s at: https://crosswords-static.guim.co.uk/gdn.cryptic.20241228.pdf
Thank you Kite.
For anyone without printer access, or simply preferring an interactive grid, you may find this useful
Hi all,
I’ve just come across a clue that uses ‘love’ to signify the letter L. Don’t think I’ve come across that before, is it reasonably standard, and if so, why ?
Thanks,
Nick
I’ve never seen it and it’s not in Chambers.
Can you post the clue and tell us where it’s from?
Maybe I’ve got the answer wrong. The clue is below. I put in IDEAL as the answer. It’s in a parochial mag so not important. Cheers.
Thought love to be perfect (5)
Is there a way for me to subscribe to topics I’m interested in so I get an email for follow up replies ?
Nick@48. I think you have solved and parsed the clue correctly, but the fact that it is in a parish magazine suggests an amateur setter. L for love is not a standard abbreviation.
Ok thanks Sheff
Nick @49 that’s not a service that’s currently offered, unfortunately.
To those who have commented regarding today’s Guardian Prize crossword, did you read the special instructions?
Please reply by email and not here – thanks
May I request that, in the case of ‘special’ crosswords like Guardian Cryptic 29,572 (Maskarade) and 29,577 (Kite), where the solving time is longer than usual, you let us know in advance on what date you will be putting up the blog?
You have already put up the blog for 29,577 (Kite) (yesterday, 4 January) even though, according to the blurb below the puzzle, the solution and winners will be published on Monday 6 January. Consequently I was expecting the blog on or after that date and I missed it.
And does the Guardian not mind your publishing the solution before they do?
@54
Your comment would be more appropriate on Site Feedback.
Nevertheless, in order for The Guardian to publish solutions on Mondays, the entries have to have been received by Saturday (or, at a stretch, Sunday). I don’t see a problem with what we do.
It’s generally accepted that most weeks the deadline is a week later but for “special” puzzles – usually the Saturday before a bank holiday – solvers are given extra time.
I can’t imagine how we could “let us know in advance” but I’d welcome any sensible suggestions.
@55
Why not just put a notice on here (or Site Feedback, if that is more appropriate) saying something like: the blog relating to crossword X will appear on such-and-such a date?
I can’t see that being too difficult?
My rule of thumb for blogging ‘prize’ or ‘special’ crosswords is to look at the deadline for entries and schedule the blog for 00:01 on the following day. The entries for the Maskerade puzzle closed on Thursday 2nd January. The blog was posted at 00:01 on Friday 3rd. Azed puzzles are always blogged well before the Observer publishes solutions, but as with specials they are blogged after the deadline for any entries.
duncanshiell @ 57
Thank you for that comment.
Does that mean that each blogger decides for him/herself when to put the blog up? I assumed that there was some sort of centralised coordination of timetables.
And does that mean that I have also missed the Maskerade blog? (I particularly wanted to say something about it).
Am I allowed to ask a question about telephones on here? It’s not really crossword related, unless you do the crossword on your phone, I suppose.
The fact is that my mobile works OK for text messages but having any sort of conversation is nigh-on impossible. The man in the Elisa shop said: ‘that’s because your phone is a dinosaur and can’t handle modern networks’ (or something along those lines). It’s only 10 years old. Anyway he suggested I buy a modern phone.
Is this right? I don’t want to buy a new phone and find it still doesn’t work.
It’s all 4G and 5G around here now, though I haven’t a clue what that means. They’ve switched off the 3G (ditto).
Anna @ 58
There have been nearly 24000 blogs on fifteensquared since the site was launched in November 2006 and they are all still available. You can search by category – for example, the Maskarade puzzle can be found in The Guardian category. You can also search by setter, blogger or puzzle number and even by a specific word if you want. Additionally you can just page backwards from the home page for recent blogs.
Bloggers don’t engage in anarchy when deciding when to blog. There is a fairly well understood convention that ‘National daily’ puzzles, such as the Guardian, Financial Times or Independent are usually blogged when the setter completes the puzzle if it is only available on the day of publication. Independent bloggers can get copies of their puzzles up to a week in advance and will probably solve it in advance before scheduling it for a time on the right day. I tend to target my Independent blogs for 07:30 UK time on the day of publication.
Inquisitor blogs are scheduled for 10:00 am on the Tuesday, 10 days after publication and this is advertised in the i newspaper where the Inquisitor is published. Similar conventions apply to puzzles like EV, Guardian Genius etc,
Anna @59
I guess it comes under “other topics of interest” though it is kinda off the wall.
You could argue that the only essentials in life are air, food and water but as we’ve progressed as humans, other things have become “life essentials”.
For example:
60 years ago my parents didn’t see the need for a telephone
50 years ago my parents didn’t see the need for colour TV
40 years ago my friends and family didn’t see the need for a computer
30 years ago my friends and family didn’t see the point of the internet
20 years ago people said they’d never have a mobile phone
10 years ago people didn’t see the point of a smartphone or GPS (SatNav)
Now look at where we are today.
Mobile phones have undergone many changes and the speed, quality, security of call signals has had to keep changing.
They didn’t have consistent names but have now become known as 1G (first generation, which was “analog”), 2G (the switch to “digital”), 3G, 4G, 5G.
As newer technologies come along, old ones become unavailable, it’s a symptom of progress.
I don’t know what an Elisa shop is but it sounds like your man is essentially correct.
I’m no expert but you can always find more information on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G or https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G
Anna @56
We do.
For example, the recent Azed puzzle had published the wrong closing date, so the blogger put up a “placeholder” on the published closing date indicating that the blog would appear later.
Placeholders tend to be transient and are (usually) deleted when the real blog appears. I don’t really see what else we can do. Incidentally, these placeholders will not be included in duncanshiells’s 24000 count as they will be in the “bin”.
In my opinion, your queries are sparked by your misconception that Guardian Prize puzzle 29,577 had an extended closing date.
Admin and duncanshiell
Thank you for your replies. Very helpful.
(Elisa is the name of the service provider, I think that’s the correct word for it, like eg Vodafone in the UK. The biggest ones here are Elisa, DNA, and Telia). I like the DNA adverts on the telly.
Anna@58. Blogs on this site stay “open” for comments for several weeks. Of course, the downside of that is that not many people will see your comment if you join the discussion late in the day. I’m often in this position myself, because I rarely start the crosswords before midday, never mind finish them.
When I do finish (or give up) and then comment, I sometimes find another late commenter and have an interaction with them.
So please don’t think you have “missed” the blog of Maskarade’s Christmas special – if you still have something interesting to say, there may still be an audience.
sheffield hatter @ 64
The comments are still coming in on the Maskarade puzzle, 15 yesterday, 3 today. In any event, the blogger will always be aware of a late comment as he / she gets an e-mail whenever a comment is posted on the relevant blog.
Thanks Duncan@65. It’s good to encourage later commenters, especially as the Guardian blog seems so competitive, with Antipodeans and UK early risers. I’m always glad to see contributions from north America later in the day, though when PeterO is blogging we can end up with a double helping!
I often see comments that begin, “it’s all been said”, or “late to the party”, prompting the thoughts, a) so why are you posting, and b) actually, I’ve got something to say! (Having read all previous posts, obviously!)
I haven’t done them yet – I’m still catching up – but this weekend has puzzles from Rosa Klebb (FT), Picaroon (Guardian Quiptic) and Brendan (Guardian Cryptic). Can it get any better than this?
Wishing a belated Happy New Year to all my cryptic companions on this site.
Anyone else out there doing the 3d crosswords in aid of RNIB? I keep getting “registration failed” when I attempt to subscribe to the newsletter. Any ideas?
I think I’m doing the robot checking bit of arithmetic ok.
Only thing I can think of is that I’ve somehow blocked their email address, but as I don’t know what it might be I can’t check my blocked senders/domains. But then that wouldn’t stop registration would it?
I don’t recall having this problem when I did all this a couple or so years ago. I’ve tried going down the forgotten password route, but didn’t receive the recovery email, though it said one had been sent. (No it’s not in spam).
This isn’t a complaint, merely a plea for advice.
I’ve grown increasingly dissatisfied with the Guardian’s crosswords these past few months. It was Rufus who first got me into crosswords: alas, he and the elegant Nutmeg are no longer around.
I thoroughly enjoy Arachne and Carpathian: the latter, however, now seems to be busily doing a lot of Quick Quiptics and the former appears very rarely in the Guardian these days.
I’ve heard that both set for other daily papers under different aliases so maybe the solution would be to abandon the Guardian’s crosswords and look elsewhere for them both and for other like-minded setters…
…and here’s the rub.
The Guardian is the only online daily news outlet I subscribe to, and many others are behind paywalls. Obviously I’d prefer not to have to pay for a crossword but, if paying is obligatory, it’s not as if I can “sample the range and quality” before stumping up for an online subscription!
I know lots of FS commenters tackle crosswords in various different places: can anyone advise me which of the dailies would be worth my trying?
My only other subscription is to Private Eye, so I do at least have the ever-delightful Cyclops.
Therefore, if all else fails, I shall just have to reduce my addiction-level from a daily to a fortnightly fix….
What are you not liking about the Guardian? The FT and independent crosswords are free access, Daily Telegraph and Times are behind paywalls. I don’t like the independent site, but that’s me. You’ll see a lot of the Guardian regular setters on the FT – Philistine/Goliath, Paul in his easier Mudd version, Maskarade Gozo, Matilda as Velia, Picaroon as Buccaneer (and Rodriguez in the independent), and etc.
Free access to the FT, Indy and Guardian puzzles can be obtained via the links on the home page of this site – no need to subscribe to the papers for any of those. Both the Telegraph and the Times have puzzle clubs which provide access to all their crosswords and other puzzles for a modest subscription without the need to subscibe to the newspapers.
Wellbeck@69, you can take out a Daily Telegraph puzzles subscription right now for just £1 for an entire year. That gives you all the puzzles up the Toughie and some newspaper content as well.
I also pay £5 a month for a Times puzzles subscription which gives access to all the puzzles, the crossword club and the Listener. Plus newspaper content.
I think these are both good value.
I should add that both subscriptions are available via an app which in my view is a much better user experience than direct access to the website (I use an iPad so I can’t comment on how the apps look and feel on other devices).
Hope that’s helpful!
I meant to say Arachne as Rosa Klebb sets for the FT and set the Saturday crossword. I also like their Sunday offerings.
Rudolf, Jay and Shanne: thank you for the info.
I hadn’t realised the Telegraph had a separate crosswords-only subscription (and one can hardly complain about a £1 fee!)
Knowing that access to the FT and the Indy is available via this site is great news. (I really should have done my homework before posting my earlier query, shouldn’t I?)
Thanks also for providing the “other” names of various setters.
I shall give all the above advice a try – and, of course, shall continue with some of the G’s offerings…
Wellbeck @74. It such be added that the Setters tab at the top of this page gives a list of setters and their various different pseudonyms.
Thank you Hovis. I have to confess, hitherto my knowledge of this site amounted to no more than the blogs concerning various crosswords I’d completed, plus the General Discussion section.
Clearly I have much to learn…
Fans of this site will be interested to note that 2025 is a multiple of 15², the number of cells in a standard crossword grid.
Obviously, this happens only once every 225 years. So we are lucky to be around for such a cruciverbally auspicious year.
But not only that, 2025 is a square multiple of 225. 2025 = 9 × 225 = 3² × 15².
This means you can arrange 9 standard 15 × 15 crossword grids in a square, and the resulting 45 × 45 supergrid will have… 2025 cells!
The last such happy occurrence was in 900 CE, i.e. 1,125 years ago; and the next one will be in 3600 CE—1,575 years hence!
Surely this occasion merits a blog mention and a commemorative crossword with 2025 cells. Who will be the first in the world to publish one? (Maybe a consortium of 9 setters?)
Me@68 Please ignore. All sorted.
I don’t do the Guardian Prize very often, but my interest was piqued by a recent comment, above. There is no link in the blog for 29,577 (Kite) to the puzzle on the Guardian website, such as there typically is in the blogs for other puzzles; and manually tweaking the URL of the current Prize puzzle there doesn’t work (gives a 404) whereas that trick does work to access past normal cryptics and quiptics. Am I right to conclude that the G doesn’t make past Prize puzzles available?
The Kite is an alphabet puzzle so, like the big bank holiday weekend puzzles and the Genius, doesn’t work electronically and has to be printed off. Usually the link is findable on the website under the prize tab.
If there isn’t a complicated format prize crosswords are found on the website. And I’m struggling to link on a phone as it wants to link to the app.
AP@79 Try this
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2024/dec/28/prize-crossword-no-29577
Thanks both of you for the explanation (which makes total sense) and for the link. In fact, the format of that URL has led me to discover that if you only put the date and omit the part which identifies the specific crossword then you get a list of all of the puzzles published on that date, including any special non-interactive one. For example,
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2024/dec/28/
Very useful.
Anirudh @77 – what a delightful bit of trivia, thanks for sharing!
Sheffield hatter @66 – It’s only commenters on the Guardian blogs who make commenting a competitive sport. No one should ever feel obliged to comment or worry about not being first – no one Is keeping a scorecard.
Thanks Anirudh@77 – your linking 2025 to the 15^2 site is very neat.
As well as (9 & 225), I’m sure you’ll know that 2025 is also the product of the square numbers (81 & 25),
It is also (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9)^2
It is also the sum of the cubes of the first nine numbers :i.e. Sum [1^3 + 2^3 …. 9^3].
Cheers
Widdersbel@83. I didn’t mean to suggest that commenters on this site were competitive. (I never read the comments below the crossword on the Guardian.) It seems to be more that some people see it as a community and feel they have missed out – or will be missed? – if they don’t post; even if they have nothing in particular to contribute.
I sometimes come here and read the comments and decide I have nothing to say, so I just go away.
Other times I don’t get around to finishing until several days later, but I’ll add a comment if I think it is interesting or deals with a point that previous commenters hadn’t resolved, even though there’s not much chance anyone will see it.
Not sure if this adds much insight – but it’s interesting that physicists are taking on crossword puzzles – the ‘percolation’/’tea-bag’ theory giving one take on why going away from a crossword for an hour or two can let the percolation happen.
Shanne@73
You fail to mention that Sarah Hayes and Victoria Godfrey both compile elsewhere in addition to their contributions to the dailies. I am proud to edit their puzzles in the Spectator and/or New Ststesman
Tom Johnson @87
1. because I was answering a question from Wellbeck @69, asking about dailies.
2. Fifteen Squared blogs neither the Spectator or New Statesman puzzles.
(I took myself off the Spectator email news updates when Gove was appointed.)
OK. Let’s try to keep politics out of this.
Thank you to Admin for your comment @89. Surely my additional facts about my two colleagues is of interest to some without an inconsiderate and totally uncalled-for comment @88
@Tom, the Spectator is one of my favourite weekly puzzles, consistently good. Thanks for your work. I found it a good way of getting into barred puzzles.
Hey all, how can I get back issues of Financial Times crosswords? I’m doing all the Rosa Klebbs, and her first FT crossword was in February 2014. The FT site only goes back as far as 2019.
I don’t know if this the correct forum to protest about the advertising that precedes the puzzle on the crossword page, but I was horrified this morning to witness a piece of propaganda by, on behalf of, or by another ‘interested party’ of the state of Israel. This compromises the integrity of the Independent as an organ of news and will make me reconsider my use of it as a source of news and enjoyment as far as ‘cross wording’ is concerned.
I found this https://www.independent.co.uk/service/contact-us-759589.html
@ Rats Given a list of clues, the Exolve Player @ https://viresh-ratnakar.github.io/exolve-player.html can generally infer the layout of the crossword and produce an interactive grid. If you copy and paste the content of a Fifteensquared blog into a spreadsheet and fiddle with it (squinting to avoid the answers) you can generally get a clean list of clues in a couple of minutes. You can then paste that list into the Exolve Player site. Make sure you to include “Across” and “Down” headings, give each clue a clue number at the beginning of the line, and provide a dedicated line for any linked clues (so if clue 1 is 1a/4d/5d, also manually introduce lines “4d – See 1a” and “5d – See 1a”).
It’s a bit of a fiddle, but you can do it in 2 or 3 mins if the original Fifteensquared blog is formatted helpfully (in the ideal scenario, the blog is formatted in such a way that pasting it puts each clue on a separate row of the spreadsheet. In those cases, you can just sort the column containing clues from A-Z to bring all the clues together)
@95, thanks Charlie. I’ll give it a crack.
skt @93 – I’ve come across the advert a number of times, it’s a lot of the reason I don’t like the Independent crossword site.
@95 Charlie, worked perfectly mate!
There’s no blog for today’s Guardian yet. Has something gone wrong?
I don’t know why my comment is awaiting moderation.
I only put it here as the blog still hadn’t appeared and something had obviously gone wrong somewhere.
@100
This is for general discussion. Things will quickly get out of hand if we include specific crossword comments.
Thanks for your understanding.
Having enjoyed the Stamp crossword this week in the Independent, we were trying to find previous examples of his work, but it seems on the online site you can only access crosswords back to 2 February. Anyone know if there’s any other archive where we could find, for instance the Christmas one from last year?
Try Fifteensquared.net/yyyy/mm/dd
Thank you
Panthes@102: Pleased to see you enjoyed the puzzle. I think Admin’s link takes you to the blog; if you were looking to solve the puzzle, here is a link to the original crossword submitted to the Independent. I still like to use the mycrossword.com software for setting and the link takes you to a Preview page on which you can solve the puzzle, check, reveal and access annotations post solve, should you so desire. If you have not visited the site before, it is intuitive to use with much the same features as the Guardian site. If you have a bash, I hope you enjoy.
100 and 101 notwithstanding.
If anyone is looking to print today’s (22 March) Guardian Prize, it’s here:
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/prize/29649/print
If Admin doesn’t like it, perhaps they could move it to where it should be. Ta.
Recent changes to the Guardian cryptic no longer give a PRINT option.
The PDF version has a character size which is too small for my over 80
eyes.
The PRINT OPTION offered a single page which I could carry with me to
The pub and conveniently share with others.
Can anyone help?
Hi, Ronnie, I have found that increasing the print scaling (in your print options) to about 120 percent when printing the “pdf” gives a workable print which may suffice for pub use… though I’ve not tested that aspect!
Dear Ronnie @107 – the recent absence of the print funtion is very puzzling, especially at it seems per Anna @106 you can simply put /print at the end of the URL to find that useful page. Very odd!
Thanks Anna
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29650/print
for todays.
Ta also to Jay and David for your thoughts.
Ronnie
update for print version.
bring the crossword up, where the only option seems to be the PDF
Click “the wee share symbol” top right select your print server (mine is Samsung Print server)
That appears gives you the Print version
Why? It beats me!
Ronnie
Is this any better than just using cmd+P (ctr+P) to print directly from the pdf (and resizing from the print menu)? Like Jay, I use 120% for Guardian and 110% for the FT. The default 100% is fine for the Independent.
Hi Hovis @112,
I assume this method will still include the previous day’s answers,
Which I would prefer not to appear, since we may not have finished!
However all good info.
Thanks
That’s true. Mind you, if I haven’t finished the previous day’s, I just pick up the printout and put it at the bottom of the pile without looking at it until i’m ready.
I’ve got serious Picaroon withdrawals 😞 I’ve been trying some other setters but man there’s some serious rubbish out there 😞
For the Guardian special yesterday, Loonapick@111 wrote:
“In my head, although I may be wrong, most people coming to this site have already looked at the puzzle on which they wish to comment (indeed, most have already completed it), so I saw no harm in giving a couple of hints [in the first paragraph] to those people who had tried, but failed to see the devices being used.”
I’ve been wanting to suggest this for a while, but I’m well aware that the generous folk doing the blogging are doing it as a favour to us, and we commentators are in no position to ask anything of them. But given that a blogger has started the conversation, I hope they don’t mind if I pick it up.
I’m one of those who look at the main page of this site and read through the post summaries that appear there, in order to decide which crosswords to attempt. (I didn’t do that with yesterday’s particular one and instead I just went straight to the Guardian, feeling sure that they’d pull some topical joke or other, and I wasn’t disappointed.) But usually I do do that. That’s how I decide whether a Paul might be easy enough to attempt, or simply whether Phi is in his usual Friday slot or not. It’s also what might draw me in to a particular Inquisitor or alert me to a lovely alphabetical.
I doubt I’m alone in looking at this site’s post list before tackling a puzzle; and so I can understand why some feel that the initial paragraph of yesterday’s post was a spoiler, and indeed I’ve fallen foul of such spoilers in the past.
It’s just a thought, but if you’ll allow me to simply state what would be ideal for me, I’d love it if the intro paragraph of each post (which is the one that forms the summaries on the main page I believe) would contain a subjective evaluation of the difficulty of the puzzle, and perhaps a hint that something interesting might be going on (if indeed it is) without any clues as to what it might be. (I don’t think that’s needed for pangrams or ninas – which don’t hold anybody up if they go undiscovered – but it would be nice for themes, perhaps, and for other oddities such as yesterday’s puzzle. It could just be the words “A special treat today”.)
That’s just as a way of giving guidance on whether to tackle the particular puzzle being blogged or whether to attempt one of the others instead. (This site blogs at least three free-to-access dailies).
I’m nothing but grateful for the work that the bloggers put in – gratis – and it’s been key to many of us commentators learning how to do these puzzles. My suggestion – particularly regarding indicating the difficulty level – would represent just an extra cherry on the cake!
Thanks again to all who make this site what it is.
[The point of putting the info in the intro paragraph, of course, is that it’ll then appear in the summaries in the post list in the main page of this site, and not require us to visit any given post to find it, which protects us from seeing any spoilers including the grid/answers themselves. Currently I kind of squint my eyes and put my hand over the screen when opening posts for puzzles I might attempt, looking for a difficulty indication but not wishing to see anything else 😀 ]
AP @ 116
As a reasonably experienced blogger, I have learnt from experience that if you want to increase the number of comments on your blog, just say that you found it easy!
Assessing the difficulty of a puzzle is very subjective and one person’s ‘easy’ will almost certainly be another person’s ‘unbelievably difficult’ or ‘unfair’. The opposite also applies. Puzzles I have thought of as difficult have attracted comments along the line of ‘well, that was a doddle’.
duncanshiell@118, for sure it’s subjective – but I don’t think that matters in fact. It’s something that one can mentally calibrate and adjust for after a short while; bear in mind we kind of get to know you folks, reading the blogs every day ;-).
“duncanshiell found this Paul to be easier then he found the last one” is definitely useful info for me, whether or not I’m usually on your or Paul’s wavelength!
AP @ 119. The problem there is remembering which was the last Paul a particular blogger blogged, and actually remembering how I got on with it.
AP@119. It’s not just subjective – it’s also neither consistent nor predictable. For example, the blogger Andrew is a much better solver than me, but on a couple of occasions I’ve read his intro and he’s said how hard he found the crossword today, and I thought, well I skated through it! (On countless occasions it’s been the other way round, of course.)
Sometimes it’s about how well you’ve slept or whether you’re worried about something. (When I say you I mean me, of course.)
I’m one who never comes to the blog unless I’ve completed or given up, and if I wanted to see who today’s setter was, the last place I would want to look would be a website where all the answers are laid out on the screen.
Very well put Sheffield Hatter!
Crispy@120, I’d say that you don’t need to be one one who remembers that, not even need to make any special effort towards consistency. Leave it to the reader to calibrate.
sheffield hatter@121, for sure it’s not a thing that everyone will find useful; you and I’m sure others don’t come to the blog in advance. But there are also those who do. Given that the suggestion wouldn’t affect the former group negatively in any way, I feel it still stands.
I agree about the issue of consistency of course; but I don’t get the impression that our bloggers are widely inconsistent in their interpretations; certainly not sufficiently so that I’d say “so-and-so who blogged today says this one was easy, but you know what they’re like, up and down like a rollercoaster, I’ll take their opinion with a hefty pinch of salt”.
As for your last sentence, don’t forget that it’s the front page (which shows the post summaries) we’re talking about, not the individual posts. The very point of the suggestion is to see the subjective info without seeing spoilers.
BTW it’s not that no blogger already does this; Pierre’s an example of somebody who usually does add a subjective comment to his posts, and I always find that useful. And if you don’t agree with the opinion? Well that just makes the commenting more fun :-). I’m just making it known to other bloggers that some users might appreciate that it become more widespread. Whether or not they wish to act on it is entirely up to them, of course!
sheffield hatter@121
Agree with you.
Sometimes several solutions happen to be those words that come to my mind first. If they happen to fill the grid in convenient places, then the puzzle turns out easy for me. Another day, I have to try different options for many solutions. And the grid is empty in one quarter.
So I don’t think there is an objective way of assessing the degree of difficulty of a puzzle.
Dear Admin,
Is it just me? I’m seeing the whole of the Mog, Enigmatist and Paul blogs on the home page. It wasn’t doing that earlier.
(Using Chrome browser on a Samsung Galaxy S2.)
Pete
Me @125. That’s weird. It’s normal again now.
Take a look at Site Feedback
[Sorry to keep banging the drum about topic of discussion in @116 onwards which has tailed off, but Loonapick’s first two sentences in today’s Paul blog would have made a perfect summary to appear on the front page:
“Paul’s puzzles often frustrate, but always entertain. This was not frustrating at all, but was certainly entertaining.”
As it was they didn’t appear for some reason, which might be a bug in the software since it’s always seemed like the first paragraph gets used (after truncation if necessary). Instead I opened the blog, read that intro and succeeded in avoiding seeing anything else, and decided to give the puzzle a go – which I may well not have done otherwise given my limited time for crosswords today. As it was, it was such an accessible Paul that I had time left over to comment here 😀
That’s a concrete example of why I welcome subjective comments in the summary. And I can assure our blogger that if in fact the puzzle had turned out to be a toughie from my perspective, I wouldn’t have been at all bitter 😉 ]
The FT crossword for April 11 (#18,023 by GAFF) is on the app but not the website yet. If you’re old school, like me, and prefer to solve on a printed page, the grid is the same as #18,006 by Zamorca. Also, there seems to be an issue with the enumeration of the first clue.
Hearing that Azed will move to the Observer site from next week (now Tortoise Media) and be interactive (print edition unchanged). No confirmation re Everyman.
Does the Observer site have free access? Or paid?
The release that was posted stated “For now, crosswords will be freely available at observer.co.uk”
Read into “for now” what you will.
The full post is here
Thanks Jay , I will be keeping a very close eye on the paper to see if the quality changes overall , the crosswords just a bonus for me . Azed has continued serenely under some very dodgy owners in the past . We could even get a proper setter for the Everyman .
More on the Guardian-Observer split in the Guardian crossword blog just published here. Everyman and Speedy will also be moving.
Archives won’t move.
@Ken / Admin, I wonder if this change is worth an announcement on the main page. I wouldn’t like folk to be unable to find their Sunday fix of choice next weekend when it’s in a different place online.
Thnaks Jay@132
I’d like to say a very big thank you to fifteensquared for many years of helping me in understanding how to parse cryptic crossword clues. I learnt so much from the bloggers here, thank you all!
As I am no longer enjoying the puzzles at the Guardian, I am going to try to wean myself off this daily habit. I prefer to start my day on a happier note from now on. If I do appear from time to time, it is only a temporary blip in my rehabilitation process 😉
michelle@137
Have you tried the Indy and the FT puzzles?
hi KVa, thanks for the info – many years ago I used to do the Indy puzzles online, I never did the FT puzzles.
I’ll have a look if they are easy to access online.
I am happy enough to do old Everyman puzzles from 2014 and earlier if I ever feel like doing a puzzle 🙂
I second the recommendation for the Indy and FT puzzles. The Times is also excellent – well worth the sub to the puzzles app, in my opinion (probably the best user interface for in-app solving too).
I’ve not done the Telegraph for a while as I didn’t renew my sub last year but they’re generally pretty decent puzzles too – and having Picaroon as deputy ed certainly won’t hurt in the quality control department.
Good luck Michelle whatever you decide and I will miss your comments in the blogs for the Guardian . The FT puzzles are very good and I think they are easy to access so I might see you in the blogs there . The Times and Independent have serious ownership issues and I would find it immoral to do their puzzles .
I picked up a Telegraph puzzles subscription for £1 for a full year. I don’t know if that offer is still available but great value if it is. The app interface and selection of puzzles is very similar to the Times.