AndrewI started off on Everyman in The Observer, and began solving Azed while I was a student at Cambridge (reading maths) shortly after it started. I do the Guardian puzzle most days and others sporadically. In real life I work as a software developer (still in Cambridge), and for non-crossword recreation play the piano and am involved in amateur theatre.
beermagnetBlogger for every other Eye & occasional Saturday Indy.
Dad/Grandad with a desire to swig amazing fluids.
Currently running in a new hip.
Still wrangling the bits'n'bytes to ensure there are virtual tins of beans on the fictitious shelves of Sainsburys data warehouse.
WFH and missing the enforced hour of calm crosswording on the commute but there are advantages too.
BertandjoyceThere was a tradition in both our families of solving Telegraph concise and cryptic crosswords. During our student days we moved on to the Observer. When we could afford a daily, we enjoyed the Guardian cryptics until the Indy arrived on the scene. Nowadays, Saturdays are not complete without the Inquisitor in the i paper.
We never time ourselves but we do feel cheated if we finish quickly and really enjoy seeking out themes and ninas etc. We are now retired and when time allows, we supplement the daily Indy solve with the on-line Guardian cryptic, Genius and the occasional Quiptic.
Finding fifteensquared was a revelation – we realised we are not alone in our attempts to stave off Alzheimer’s!
bridgesongBorn in 1947, I remember as a child tackling the Skeleton in my father’s Sunday Express before moving on to The Times at school with a classmate. For 20 years or so after leaving school I had no time for crosswords but started again in the 1980s, teaching myself to do Azed (with help from Don Manley’s Crossword Manual). Now retired after a career as a lawyer which culminated in appointment as a District Judge, I do the Guardian every Saturday, usually with my friend and neighbour Timon (who introduced me to fifteensquared). I also enter the Azed monthly competitions but have never done better than the very occasional VHC. More recently I have become a subscriber to the Magpie magazine and submit entries monthly, without yet winning a pen. My pseudonym comes from two of my other leisure interests, bridge and singing.
CinerariaBorn in 1963, I began with crosswords as a little boy by “helping” my grandfather with the puzzle in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. I have done American-style crosswords since I was a teenager, and I enjoy many other types of word puzzles, including cryptograms and acrostics. I cannot remember when I discovered cryptic crosswords. I used to do the Guardian puzzle every day, but being a lawyer by profession does not leave me a lot of time to indulge my deliberate yet desultory solving method. I have been doing the Guardian Prize every Friday and the Azed every Saturday since 2020, and the Genius every month since 2018 (typically succeeding, but admittedly with some DNFs). I was even gratified to be a Genius winner a few years ago. I have learned an awful lot from studying the post-mortems on fifteensquared. As for other interests, I have a large collection of origami books, and I like folding the most complicated models I can find.
duncanshiellBorn in 1948. I retired from full-time work in May 2007, after 37 years with Ordnance Survey and associated bodies and now have time to devote to crosswords, something not available for many years. Product of 17 years in the Scottish education system, but lived overseas or in southern England for virtually all of the time thereafter. I moved back to Scotland in 2010. Regular road runner and recently returned to orienteering and golf after a 35 year gap. Developed interested in cryptic crosswords in the mid 1960s (Scotsman, Sunday Express skeleton), but working overseas and then raising a family, meant dropping out of crossword solving for about 30 years. Now a regular solver of Times, Guardian, Independent, Inquisitor, Listener and Magpie crosswords. Reasonably regular finisher of the first four. Started blogging in late 2007. Any solving ability far outweighs any clueing ability. Krypton Factor contestant 1983; eliminated in the first round, but the obstacle course finish made good television!
EileenI’ve been doing cryptic crosswords since university days, learning how with a group of friends in coffee breaks. The Guardian crossword has been part of my life for most of the time since.
Since retiring from teaching (originally Classics and, subsequently, when that was dropped from the curriculum, mostly English and History), having serendipitously stumbled on 15², I discovered that I could get the Indy and FT puzzles online and so I now add those, when they are set by my favourite compilers. Occasionally, I try the Genius and have even submitted a few. (Some years ago, I won a Collins dictionary in the Guardian Prize lottery, which established it as my referred reference.) I don’t take note of solving times: I enjoy taking time savouring the construction and particularly the surface of clues and always feel slightly disappointed when I finish too quickly.
My one regret is my complete failure to enthuse any member of my family with cryptic crosswords.
flashlingReincarnated blogger. I’m now 62 and sadly recently made redundant. Started doing cryptics whilst living in Oxford (despite being a Cambridge man) in about 1988 when I started buying the Independent which I’ve done pretty much every day since. Flirted with the Guardian and Times but prefer the Indy. I’m not an overly fast solver, preferring to savour rather rush through it.
Away from crosswords I used to do professional firework displays as a part time job/hobby but it's best left now to younger fitter folks.
HolyGhostStarted on cryptic crosswords as a late teenager and completed the Times daily until the Independent started. (Didn't do the crossword - just stopped reading the Times.)
Often tackled the Independent weekend magazine crossword in the early and late 1990s (spent mid-90s in Bruxelles), and then most of them since moving out of London in summer 2000. I must say that my forays into the Listener used to prove more satisfying (except the number ones) - estimate 98% successful - but usually don't have enough discretionary time for both. Now that the Listener and the Inquisitor seem pretty level I rarely stray from tackling only the latter.
JohnBorn 1946. Since retiring (maths teacher) have spent an increasing amount of time on crosswords, something that was impossible before – am not in the sub-ten minutes league and probably never will be. Do The Times every day (more often than not in over half an hour), also an assortment of other puzzles. Have been doing Azed monthly for some years and entering his clue-setting competitions, occasionally with some success (I even won once, have had 36 VHCs and 138 HCs — yes, I keep a record, sad isn't it) but not enough for my liking. I've set a few crosswords: five in Oxford Today, a few on Derek Harrison's website, and five in The Independent, under the name Vernon. Also play a lot of chess and golf, although as I age I'm getting weaker at both.
kenmacIn early 2022 I took over administration for this site.
Born 1954. I've been fascinated by cryptic crosswords since childhood. My mother used to attempt the Daily Mail cryptic every day but I don't remember her ever finishing one. Then, when I started working, a colleague would bring in The Telegraph every day.
It wasn't till my daughter started to get interested, when I bought her a "how to" book that I realized that the definition is "always" the first word (or words) or the last word (or words) of the clue. In 2000 I discovered the, then, Independent Weekend Crossword (now Inquisitor) and later Enigmatic Variations and The Listener. I solve The Inquisitor most weeks and won the Champagne once.
In 2005 I achieved an ambition by having a barred crossword published in The Independent using the pseudonym Cayenne. Then I had another one in 2015 in collaboration with Anax. This was Inquisitor 1839.
KittyI blog some of the weekend Independent and Enigmatic Variations puzzles here on 225, and Quick Cryptic and Jumbo cryptics on Times for The Times. Not a frequent commenter at the moment, because of work and life, but I hope to be back one day.
LeedsclimberMy earliest memory of doing a crossword was sitting in a bench shelter on Hastings sea front with my dad. After that there was quite a gap until I started dabbling with the Sunday Times cryptic about 20 years ago. Back then my best time for completion could (only) be measured in days. Thankfully a bit better these days.
manehiStarted solving cryptics as a teenager in the early 2000s. I have worked as an economist in the civil service and am now teaching. I play ultimate frisbee three times a week, and help to run a community cafe in a local eco park.
mhlAlthough I had some early attempts to solve cryptic crosswords as a teenager, it was only in my late 20s (and mostly thanks to fifteensquared!) that I became reasonably competent as a solver. However, despite being a slow solver I found that I had a knack for parsing clues, and volunteered to do a weekly blog post on the Guardian crossword. After a few years, I had to drop down to being on the Guardian Prize rota, but eventually found that with two young children to look after, I didn't have time even for that. I'm still hoping to resume blogging more regularly when they're a little older!
miserableoldhackI was brought up in the 1970s on a daily diet of The Times cryptic, which we used to attempt to solve together as a family over lunch. Families really can be very strange. I've had various jobs as a professional pedant in various publications in what used to be known as Fleet St, hence my nickname. Though honestly I'm really not very miserable at all, most of the time.
NealHI've been doing crosswords off and on since university back in the 1980s. I used to do the Guardian, but defected to the Independent a year ago. My solving standard is still not what I'd like. I'd love to be able to knock off a crossword in 10 minutes, but find I'm still getting stuck for long periods when the inspiration doesn't quite arrive. I once had a go at compiling crosswords but, after a very rude rejection for the editor of the Telegraph, I didn't bother any further.
Pete MacleanI am a Brit who resides in Portugal and is retired from the software business. I have been doing the FT Weekend crossword regularly for something like 40 years and do others only rarely. I have been blogging the FT Weekend puzzle here for close to 20 years.
PeterOBorn 1944. I was introduced to cryptics, mainly the Telegraph, in the sixth form, as a group effort. This continued through college (physics), and after, but more sporadically after I moved to the US forty years ago. Now I am semi-retired from programming - I drive school buses - I have time to troll the internet for crosswords to my heart's content. I regularly do the Guardian, Independent FT and Private Eye. Despite rather regular entries to Private Eye and the Guardian Genius, the nearest I have come to winning anything was on a book publishers' website, a crossword compiled by Eddie James, I think. As the prizes included a bottle of Champagne, to avoid customs problems, I entered in my brother-in-law's name. He was somewhat surprised to win.
QuiristerI learned to do crosswords from my parents, who also introduced me to choral singing and classical languages (they met in a choir while studying Classics / History at university). Perhaps not the most obvious background for an Engineering degree, but the language and problem-solving skills turned out to be useful for working as a technical author in the software industry. Meanwhile all the fun stuff (sewing, cooking and various crafts as well as the singing) gradually took over more of my time . . . so eventually I decided that 30 years’ working life was enough. I now do a range of different volunteer tasks and need a good diary to keep track of it all. As they say: once you retire, you wonder how you ever found time to go to work.
ShenanigansI have been doing The Listener crossword on and off (mainly off) since I was about 16. I am now slightly older, and finally have a lot of time on my hands to devote to this beauty and others like it. In its honour, I created the Crossword Database, which you can get to from the Fifteensquared Links page. I try and complete The Listener, Inquisitor and Enigmatic Variations every week, with about a 90% success rate (which translates into a 0.1% prize rate). I treat all these puzzles like treasure hunts where, well not to put too fine a point on it, anything goes in trying to get to the elusive pot of gold … except of course asking someone else. I have no qualms about using Bradford's or Chambers Crossword Dictionaries or about Googling whatever seems appropriate.
On the non-crosswording front I play golf and tinker with computery stuff. I grew up with William Hartnell's Doctor Who and Monty Python, but feel at home in the 21st century with Matt Smith's Doctor, Little Britain and the League of Gentlemen.
twencelasAge 58 - Been doing cryptic crosswords since the early 1980's, started with the Sunday Times and then enjoyed them on a daily basis when the independent was launched. Over several years managed to get the hang of all the original Indie setters.
Started attempting the Indie magazine crossword in the early nineties - took me a while to complete one, though - the use of all the squares luring the solver into thinking that its easier than it really is. Continued through the nineties and into this century with the Indie and the odd foray into the murkier world of the Listener - with little success, other than the numerical ones.
Spent the last year or so concentrating on the thematics - can now complete most Listeners (tend to limit myself to a starting day and a having slept on it day, if needed), the high 90%'s of the Inquisitor (still my favourite) and Enigmatic Variations. Still have a daily fix of the Indie or Guardian and am pleased to see more and more themes used in the daily puzzles.
One day hope to author some puzzles myself, though must admit to being in awe of the precise clueing of the top compilers.
WiddersbelRegular blogger for the FT Sunday News and World puzzles.
I've been interested in all kinds of puzzles from an early age but didn't become a regular cryptic crossword solver until the early 2000s, when the Guardian cryptic was a way to help pass the long daily train commute. In 2008, searching the internet for assistance with a tricky puzzle, I came across fifteensquared. Learnt a lot from the blogs over the following years and eventually became a competent solver. Joined the blogging crew in 2023 - also made my debut the same year as a setter in the Indy under the alias Salty.