Fifteensquared – Page 1409 – Never knowingly undersolved

Independent 7,563 / Dac

Thu January 13, 2011 at 12:32 amWed January 12, 2011 at 2:59 pm by RatkojaRiku

For me, Dac’s puzzles tend to be characterised by an economy of language and a smoothness of surface reading in the clues, and are reminiscent of those Guardian puzzles set by Custos (the … Read more >>

Financial Times 13,589 Set by AARDVARK

Thu January 13, 2011 at 10:12 amWed January 12, 2011 at 11:49 am by PeeDee

Enjoyable crossword, neither too hard nor too easy. This was my first FT blog and I don’t know AARDVARK at all, so was a little apprehensive starting this one. My favourite clue was … Read more >>

Guardian 25,217 / Arachne

Wed January 12, 2011 at 5:49 pmWed January 12, 2011 at 8:36 am by Eileen

There’s something for everyone here: art, opera, literature, geology and science. I have niggles about one or two definitions but there are some clever clues, with some good anagrams and smooth surfaces, giving … Read more >>

Inquisitor 1158 Middlemen by Lato

Wed January 12, 2011 at 5:30 am by Hihoba

Stunning puzzle with lots of elements from Lato. First the rubric: long and complex but, once understood, entirly fair and correct. We had eight clues with two consecutive redundant words which clued “pairs”. … Read more >>

Independent 7,562/Tees

Tue January 11, 2011 at 1:08 pm by Ali

A very welcome appearance from Tees with a very enjoyable puzzle, much of it centred around 21A. There are some excellent clues in here, the political-themed anagram at 11/9 being a particular highlight. … Read more >>

Financial Times 13,588 / Orense

Tue January 11, 2011 at 4:50 am by Agentzero

An enjoyable puzzle with some surprising twists and turns. 21 down was the last to fall, but there were plenty of clues with micely misleading wordplay. In particular, I liked the way the … Read more >>

Guardian 25216 Pasquale … Delightful Torture

Tue January 11, 2011 at 2:19 pmTue January 11, 2011 at 1:57 am by Uncle Yap

One gets the feeling that the Don may well have a sadistic streak when he acted like Procrustes, stretching the legs of innocent travellers on the rack and actually chopping up the good … Read more >>

Guardian Quiptic 582 / Orlando

Mon January 10, 2011 at 2:10 pmMon January 10, 2011 at 11:14 am by Big Dave

I had the great pleasure to meet Orlando a few months ago. If you haven’t already seen his “Best for Puzzles” site then it is well worth a look, especially for the comprehensive … Read more >>

Independent 7561 by Hypnos

Mon January 10, 2011 at 7:18 am by NealH

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism A fairly gentle start to the week from Hypnos. There were lots of nice clues with 10 being my favourite. 4 down was also … Read more >>

Guardian 25,215 – Rufus

Mon January 10, 2011 at 12:30 am by Andrew

Another very easy Rufus, though I had to check a couple of defintions (12ac and 6dn). I thought some of the double definitions were a bit weak, but there were some nice anagram … Read more >>

Beelzebub 1,089 (02/01/11)

Sun January 9, 2011 at 10:30 am by Simon Harding

Another unaided solve this week, although I admittedly made a couple of slips which I was later able to correct by checking Chambers. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 … Read more >>

Everyman No. 3353 (2nd January)

Sun January 9, 2011 at 6:30 am by The Trafites

Lorraine This week I had trouble with the north east corner, possibly due to over indulgence at Christmas and New Year, got there in the end though. Favourite clues 11ac, 16ac, 20ac, 3dn, … Read more >>

Azed 2014: Competition puzzle

Sun January 9, 2011 at 9:08 amSun January 9, 2011 at 12:05 am by jetdoc

An Azed of average difficulty — most answers were pretty straighforward to work out from the wordplay, but I needed Chambers to check that some of the words really existed. Skelder, fratch and … Read more >>

Azed 2012

Sun January 9, 2011 at 12:02 am by John

We have had a plethora of Azed Specials recently, caused no doubt by things occurring at inconvenient times: first we has TWO THOUSAND, which was in effect the October competition and celebrated Azed’s … Read more >>

Independent on Sunday 1090: Quixote

Sun January 9, 2011 at 12:01 am by jetdoc

I hope I have got the serial number right here, for the puzzle published on 2 January. Because I don’t like writing on newsprint (sorry!), I scanned it in and printed it onto … Read more >>