New Premises
Welcome to the new home of Fifteensquared. The difference between this and the old site is that I now own the domain name fifteensquared.net and I’m using it to host the blog, rather … Read more >>
Everyman 3169/Partick Thistle
I think Partick Thistle is the only Scots reference in this puzzle. Of course, my Caledonian theory might be completely incidental but it gives me a goal each week. Overall, pretty easy cluing … Read more >>
Guardian 24,111 (Sat 23 Jun)/Enigmatist – Taiping error
Solving time: Forgot to record, but I think I gave up on 17dn after about 15 mins. The bottom left corner was the hardest, if I remember correctly. Some very inventive clues in … Read more >>
Guardian 24116/Taupi
Across 1 BESIDE THE POINT – double definition. 9 RI,T in IRAN,T – excellent surface reading. 11 H in (METEOR)* 12 DUN,(GONE)* 15 HOMOPHONE – nothing to do with the answer at 4D, … Read more >>
Independent 6459/Phi
I thought I’d got the schedule wrong when I came to post this and saw the top Independent post from Neil for a Phi! Closer examination revealed a different crossword completely so business … Read more >>
FT 12497/Mudd – nourishing
Even though his name is Mudd here – it’s Paul in the Guardian. I definitely solved this more quickly than the typical Paul – so maybe there is something to the theory that … Read more >>
Independent 6454/Hard-Phi – Moving to the Weekend
We had a tough Saturday Phi puzzle a couple of months ago but I think this one was harder. I solved this one in deepest Suffolk, with no access to a decent dictionary … Read more >>
Inquisitor 25 – Conclusion by Zero
Solving time: about 90 mins A fairly standard challenge here: find extra words in four across and four down clues which allow what’s presumably a quotation to be identified, and clashes between across … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 906 by Quixote
Solving time: 23 mins * (anagram) ACROSS 1 RAP TOR 4 BAD BLOOD Pleasing double definition 10 DEC (December is last month) ALITRE (retail)* 13 COELENTERATES (ocean resettle)* 16 POSTMODERNISM (Immodest porn’s)* 23 … Read more >>
Guardian 24115/Gordius – Twins and tarring the bush
1A was the best cryptic political comment I’ve seen in a long time. I had to look up 21A and 14A for being too esoteric. Found this overall rather hard but with many … Read more >>
Independent 6458/Dac
Across 1 PAT,C,ASH(e) – excellent topical clue. 9 P in SOHO,MORE – one of the last 2 or 3 answers to go. “Part of London again” had me puzzled for a while. 10 … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,486 by Cincinnus
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 16, 2007 Across 1. ENGLANDER – *(GREENLAND) 6. TORCH – double definition. 9. STAID – homophone 10. NOTEPAPER – reverse(ETON) + PAPER. Very clever! 11. … Read more >>
FT 12,495 by Cinephile
At first glance this looked liked it could be one of those lesser-spotted species, a totally athematic Cinephile puzzle. But it turned out that there was actually a healthy dose of climate change … Read more >>
Azed 1829
Apologies for a late Azed report – can’t remember my time for this, or how much I used the big red book – I re-solved from memory after prematurely chucking the original. Across … Read more >>
Independent 6457/Morph – Stepping down
Fantastic puzzle from “one of us” with a very clever and very topical theme. You probably know the game where you have to change one word into another in a certain number of … Read more >>