mhl

Although 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!

Guardian 27,675 / Paul

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We normally complete Paul’s crosswords pretty quickly, but this one took ages! That’s a bit surprising in retrospect since there’s nothing very obscure here. A high quality puzzle, as ever – thank-you, Paul! … Read more >>

Guardian 27,579 / Enigmatist

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On a personal note, this is a nice landmark for me: it’s my 250th post on Fifteensquared, and I’ve been posting here for just over 10 years, starting by writing about one Guardian … Read more >>

Guardian 27,555 / Paul

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I’ll be interested to see if other people found this as tough as we did! It’s one of those ones where looking back I’m not sure why it was quite so hard, but … Read more >>

Guardian 27,531 / Paul

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We got a bit stuck on this right at the end, partly because of having a wrong but plausible answer for 18a – I suspect a few other people will have had the … Read more >>

Guardian 27,507 / Paul

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Normally we charge through Paul puzzles, but for some reason this one seemed harder than usual. Anyway, it was very enjoyable solve – thanks, Paul! Across 1. Bread Irish pub rejected in place … Read more >>

Guardian 27,459 / Vlad

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We found this very tough, but looking back I’m not sure exactly why. There were a few words I struggled to recall (see the next paragraph) but that doesn’t quite explain it. It … Read more >>

Guardian 27,435 / Enigmatist

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I think this is what I’d expected when seeing this was an Engimatist: laughs, groans, lots of general knowledge needed, liberal cluing style, and it was really rather difficult! It was an enjoyable … Read more >>

Guardian 27,411 / Picaroon

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Apologies for the late post – work stress over the past weeks and calendar incompetence combined meant that I totally forgot I was meant to be posting about this one. Anyway, I thought … Read more >>

Guardian 27,388 / Maskarade

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This was the bumper double-grid Christmas crossword from Maskerade. Unfortunately, we found this very hard, and not terribly enjoyable as result – it’ll be interesting to find out what the rest of you … Read more >>

Guardian 27,364 / Shed

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A fun prize puzzle from Shed – not too tough, and we didn’t spot any particular theme, but might well have missed something! CARBONADO was one of those satisfying clues where you work … Read more >>

Guardian 27,340 / Picaroon

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An impressive prize crossword from Picaroon, for reasons I’ll explain below…. There was some rubric for this puzzle, which read: Wordplay in each clue ignores a letter required in the solution What only … Read more >>