January 2026 – Page 6 – Fifteensquared

The 2025 Spectator Christmas Special – a mammoth effort by Doc, with (approx) 81 clues and no less than 51(?) thematic unclued entries in seven categories! Fortunately, the Christmas edition of the magazine was a triple-weeker, so I had almost 5 weeks to solve and blog. I think I have solved/deduced them all, some on the last day before submission, but readers/commenters may have come up with alternative possibilities – time will tell when the official solution is published on Thursday…

Financial Times 18,265 by BOBCAT

Mon January 12, 2026 at 12:09 pm by Teacow

BOBCAT kicks off the week…

Independent 12,250 by Italicus

Mon January 12, 2026 at 9:00 am by NealH

This was a mostly gentle puzzle with a few that required some work to parse them.

Guardian Cryptic crossword No 29,901 by Qaos

Mon January 12, 2026 at 7:30 am by Bertandjoyce

We’re standing in for Eileen today and are delighted to find that we have a Qaos to blog.

MyCrossword Featured crossword No 2 by Meles

Mon January 12, 2026 at 6:15 am by Leedsclimber

Good morning everyone

A number of “firsts” on this blog: my first My Crossword blog, my first blog of MC setter Meles, and first use of the crossword blogging utility. Perhaps only my 15×15 colleagues will care about that last one, though!

Financial Times 18,264 by Rosa Klebb

Mon January 12, 2026 at 12:30 pmMon January 12, 2026 at 12:00 am by Pete Maclean

Puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 10, 2026

Guardian Quiptic 1,364 by Carpathian

Sun January 11, 2026 at 8:44 pmSun January 11, 2026 at 9:02 am by Shanne

The Guardian Sunday cryptic crossword – found online here

Everyman 4,133/4 January

Sun January 11, 2026 at 12:05 am by Pierre

A sound and pleasing puzzle from Everyman, with all the usual trademark inclusions.

Azed 2775

Sun January 11, 2026 at 12:05 am by Andrew

As it’s the first Sunday of the month (and indeed the year) this is a competition puzzle, though the PDF (and presumably the paper version) merely labels it as “plain”. Thanks to Azed, and Happy New Year to him and all his solvers.