Alan Connor enjoys cameos by famous names in his pick of the best – and most explosive – cryptic clues
The news in clues
There was a bonus extended-play edition of this blog on Saturday: Celebrating 100 years of the crossword. It's a place for cryptic newcomers to start; I also enjoyed the comments enormously, especially an unexpected visit from indefatigable letter-writer Keith Flett, who recalled that the eminent Guardian setter Araucaria once used him in a clue.
Being the topic of a crossword clue is, by all accounts, a funny feeling. At the very least, it suggests that the setter thinks that there's a good chance that solvers will be familiar with you. As a passage in Punch from 1961 put it:
When may a young man be said to have arrived? Adam Faith got a double accolade last week, recognition in two fields outside his art: (i) Having a signed column in the biggest circulation Sunday paper; (ii) Having his name used as a pun in a quality Sunday paper's erudite crossword puzzle.
And talking of musical Adams, singer-songwriter Ryan Adams was more circumspect when talking to Harp magazine in 2003:
How did Ryan Adams know that he had truly made it? "The day before yesterday I was 21 across in the New York Times crossword puzzle," he says a little diffidently. "I didn't call my mom … I just don't want to bother her with that. Plus I don't want to hang on to being part of a crossword puzzle, because there's going to be many more crosswords down the line."
Quite so. Either way, Araucaria's clue is well worth revisiting …
8d Fish turnedtobull in SpainwhenKeith, correspondentof the Queen, gets appropriate degree (6,2,7)
… especially as it awards Flett a kind of honorary crosswording title, DOCTOR OF LETTERS.
Crosswords about crosswords
Who, the seasoned FT solver may have wondered, is the mysterious new setter "Ateles"? A quick trip to Collins Dictionary confirms that, as is often the case, a new setting pseudonym conceals a collaboration between two existing virtuosi: Ateles is the spider monkey, and this was a puzzle by Arachne, sometimes known as the Spider Woman, and Monk.
Why had they joined forces? The puzzle was the first of a flurry of 50th-birthday tributes to John Henderson, known to Guardian solvers as Enigmatist. You can see the hidden message at Monk's site but you should of course complete the puzzle first!
This and the other puzzles met the key criterion of being solvable and enjoyable by those who had no idea of the theme, making the hidden messages all the more touching. The others include one in the Sunday Times from Brian Greer, known locally as Brendan, with an affectionate clue …
20ac In maturity, getting podgierwithale, perhaps? (4,3,3)
... for RIPEOLDAGE, an Independent weekend puzzle by Anax with the irresistible …
29ac One setting puzzle– Iamsettingcryptic (10)
… for ENIGMATIST and so many other tricks and tributes that the review at solvers' blog Fifteen Squared can hardly contain them all, and an epic bespoke multi-setter puzzle at Telegraph solvers' blog Big Dave. The warmth shown across these and other puzzles is palpable and wholly deserved.
And Enigmatist's first name is itself rich in connotations, from antipodean slang for a policeman to a 19th-century racist term for a Chinese person. So, reader, how would you clue JOHN?
Clueing competition
Thanks for your clues for LISA. Perhaps names lend themselves to evocative clueing? I enjoyed harlobarlo's poignant "Alas, I cheated, losing a girl" and HipsterPriest's meteorological "Hurricane batters animals not man", and the misleadingly biblical-sounding cryptic definition in Middlebro's "This historical apple was temptingly offered, but at a great cost".
Likewise booky were andyknott's classical "Sail away with issue of Homer?" and JollySwagman's polyglot "Tours the island as captive of girl from Homer" and the award for audacious construction goes to ixioned for "Girl regularly playing a mean sax?"
The runners-up are andyknott's economical "Presley is interminably All Shook Up" and Middlebro's ingenious "Basil Fawlty, so it is said, lost his head for this girl"; the winner is steveran's base, intriguing "Loins oddly start to ache for girl".
Kudos to Steve - please leave this fortnight's entries and your pick of the broadsheet cryptics below.
Clue of the fortnight
Rorschach, last week, breathed new life into the Fawkes-themed puzzle, incorporating modern-day political blogging, various cryptic interpretations of "fifth" and "November" and a beautifully terse cryptic definition …
8d Gunpowder plot? (3,10)
… of TEA PLANTATION. Boom!