Guardian 24,616 – Puck
Puck seems to be in a thirsty, miserable mood, with a number of references to drinking / being drunk as well as depression in the clues. Quite a few tricky ones today, I … Read more >>
Beelzebub 989 (01/02/09)
Hello again, everyone. I’d like to re-introduce Beelzebub to Fifteensquared, as I think it’s a splendid – yet often overlooked – crossword. For the uninitiated, Beelzebub is published in the Independent on Sunday’s … Read more >>
Independent 6956/Bannsider (Prize puzzle 31-01-09)
Excellent puzzle. You could pick out 3 or 4 top-notch clues by closing your eyes and randomly pointing with a finger but I especially liked 11 and 1d. I can usually explain everything … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations 847: Fields of Action by Dysart
The grid represents some “fields of action”, and so long as they’re not football or rugby fields I should be OK. The subsidiary indication in each down clue has an extra letter; these … Read more >>
Inquisitor 109 – TRANSACTION by Lato
An excellent offering from Lato. Some odd words and a clever and (we thought) pretty taxing theme. Entertaining though! The TRANSACTION referred to is 33D 23A – PART EXCHANGED and the answers had … Read more >>
FT 12,994/Viking
A fairly benign workout – I even managed to solve this on-screen without too much difficulty (my printer having thrown another late night tantrum). A few of the clues (e.g. 26A, 19D) struck … Read more >>
Independent 6,961 by Phi
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. A good, solid puzzle, as one tends to expect from Phi – a setter for whom I have the greatest of admiration. I didn’t find … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,993 / Falcon
What can I say? Nothing controversial today, nothing too difficult and nothing to quibble about. There were a couple of obscure words (9a & 8d) but these were easy to determine from the … Read more >>
Independent 6960 by Mordred
In terms of time taken to solve, I found this the hardest of the year so far, 75 mins. There’s also a Nina which I refer to after the clue explanations * = … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 990 by Quixote (1 Feb 2009)
I found this a very fast solve indeed, solving time, 11 mins * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 V 1 CAR 4 MOT IF (Kipling) 7 CONVENIENCE FOOD (Innocence of dove)* … Read more >>
Guardian 24615 / Rover
A mixture of very easy clues and some that are rather tricky to explain. I’m slightly doubtful about my explanations for 11a, 12a and could do with some suggestions for 28a and 20d. … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,984 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword on 26 January 2009 dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,983 by Cincinnus
Weekend FT prize puzzle from January 24 I found the top-left quadrant of this puzzle to be a challenge to complete. I was not familiar with the Battle of Solferino and was thwarted … Read more >>
Independent 6959/Dac
Is it just me, or is Dac becoming a bit harder? No objections though: as usual everything made pretty good sense once I’d got there. Across 1 POM ACE 4 SQUATTER — 2 … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,992 / Io
I can’t say I particularly enjoyed this one but that may be partly due to the fact that I woke up with toothache this morning. Some of the surfaces seemed ‘strained’ or didn’t … Read more >>