Comments for Fifteensquared

Comment on Financial Times 13,328 – Dante by Finance

Finance — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:50:03 +0000

?Excellent blog with lots of useful information on financial

Comment on Guardian 24,961 (Puck) by Paul (not Paul)

Paul (not Paul) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:19:11 +0000

I was getting slightly annoyed at one point that Puck was having a dig at Rugby League, describing it as an Great Aunt and Rugby Union as sexy! Maybe he is.

But I’ll forgive him for putting Rochdale Hornets – not an obscure RL team in this house – into a cryptic.

Defeated by Castle and Corset (I filled in Dorset when I had all the crossing letters). I always forget the man = chesspiece reference.

Plenty of tough clueing – ate = worried, for instance, so I was very pleased at this near miss.

Comment on Independent on Sunday 1048 by Quixote 14 March 2010 by Handel

Handel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:20:03 +0000

Nope, never won anything. Would like to though, as the prize for this puzzle is better than many. Also want the glory, obviously!

Comment on Independent on Sunday 1048 by Quixote 14 March 2010 by Quixote

Quixote — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:06:57 +0000

Would love to know whether Handel has ever won a Quixote prize, since I keep seeing the same names!

Comment on Guardian 24,949 / Brendan by Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:48:53 +0000

Hi Brad -it’s nice to hear from you.

I think your interpretation is the same as I gave in the blog. Any further discussion, I think, [it's a long time ago!] was about whether the inner was the perfect shot or the one next to it.

Since it’s a couple of weeks now since the puzzle, I don’t think anyone else is likely to respond, so it’s between you and me! Have you still a problem with this clue?

Comment on Guardian 24,949 / Brendan by Brad

Brad — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:10:17 +0000

Very tentative commment regarding 7d as I am a Yank and take on the order of days to complete these :^). I think the relationships are “with almost” = “w” and “perfect shot” = inner.

Comment on Guardian 24,961 (Puck) by Martin H

Martin H — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:49:46 +0000

Hi don – Yes, I was not sure about ‘quite short’. It must be the sense of ‘quite’ as ‘entirely’, as in ‘quite enough’, etc.

Comment on Guardian 24,961 (Puck) by don

don — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:20:13 +0000

Sorry, ‘quite short’, I meant.

Comment on Guardian 24,961 (Puck) by Brian Harris

Brian Harris — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:20:13 +0000

Once we’d cracked the references to 13 and 15, the rest was fairly straightforward, despite not knowing all that much about Rugby. We guessed a couple of teams. There was quite a bit of head-scratching going on before we figured this out, though, and some of the clues were very hard to deconstruct at first glance… 16ac for example.

26ac is a truly inspired clue, given that “Puck” is the setter.

Comment on Guardian 24,961 (Puck) by don

don — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:19:28 +0000

Quite right, Walruss – not one of them in the Magners League!

I can imagine why people would have been as put off by this theme as I and others are put Orff by obscure composers, but I thought it was an excellent crossword, while being misdirected by sexy great aunts. Thought of ‘Sale’ and ‘Wasp’, but it wasn’t until I got ‘quin’ with the other crossing letters that the light shone for me. A Bradford Bull caused great delay until it had to be ‘abashment’ and finally, the best of the lot,’setter’.

Can anyone explain why ‘not quite’ = ‘al(l)’ please?