When different puzzles feature the same words on the same days, do we need to call in the spooks?
There’s an experience familiar to anyone for whom one puzzle a day is not enough. We particularly enjoy it at Crossword Blog: the Cluing Coincidence.
Recently, for example, Raich in the Independent had this clue ...
12ac Self-disciplined– sure, ate differently (7)
[Anagram of “sure ate”]
4d Severe features relaxed — not feminine (7)
[Anagram of “features” without abbreviation for “feminine”][Anagram of EATURES]
I’ve seen this before. Crossword editors, quirky sense of humour. Probably some kind of inside joke.
Each puzzle selects about 25 words from, say, about 80,000 suitable for such a puzzle, leading to a probability of a particular word in one puzzle appearing in another of 25/80,000.
There are similar effects that probably mean the selection is very much biased towards some types of words cropping up more often, especially where there are few possibilities to match crossing letters in longer words that can’t be changed as easily.
This considerably changes the probability of coincidences, although it’s still low — but not so low that one wouldn’t expect them to occur on occasion.
8ac Jane’s brief religious education is puritanical (7)
[Truncated surname of a “Jane” plus abbreviation for “religious education”]
[AUSTEN - N + RE]