Crossword blog: are crosswords the clickbait of print publications?
A warning against regarding the crossword as one of the fun optional extras that come with newsA year ago, we looked at an uncanny image of crosswording from the successful bits-and-bobs website...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: the best cryptic clues at Christmas
Festive tales both touching and chilling in our cryptic picksAround this time of year, crossword setters furnish us not just with puzzles but also with seasonal references and even, through allusion...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: the truth about brass monkeys
Alan Connor celebrates a musical legend and punctures a simian myth in his pick of the best cryptic cluesA hidden theme from Raich in last Friday’s Independent. 32 across (yes, this puzzle has 35 clues...
View ArticleCryptic crosswords for beginners: Roman numerals
Alan Connor demystifies the devices used in cryptic crosswords for beginners. This time: numbers turning into letters Welcome back, beginners, to our ongoing series which tries to show that cryptic...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: when we all talk poker
Alan Connor finds poker jargon and rose-coloured blooms in his pick of the best cryptic cluesIf you haven’t solved Tramp’s puzzle from last Thursday’s Guardian, you will not regret some pausing,...
View ArticleCryptic crosswords for beginners: Me, you, her, him ...
Alan Connor demystifies the devices used in cryptic crosswords. This time: ‘I’ve’, ‘you’re’, ‘he’s’, ‘she’d’ and other snappy fragmentsNext in our toolkit for the cryptic-curious, a device that...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: fräcking Ikea
Alan Connor discovers what ‘frack’ means abroad – and in outer space – in his pick of the cryptic cluesAs we get another glimpse of the revolting revolving doors ushering the kleptocratic spirit...
View ArticleCryptic crosswords for beginners: apostrophes
Alan Connor demystifies the devices used in cryptic crosswords. This time: the sneaky apostropheWelcome back, you cryptic-curious!Inspired by a recent comment, this week’s instalment of cryptic tips...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: Batman encounters a googly
Alan Connor finds cricketing lingo and ecstatic politicians in his pick of the best cryptic cluesA new setter in the Independent, Knut, debuted with an excitingly topical puzzle that featured a cameo...
View ArticleCrossword blog: Breaking the palindrome codes
Alan Connor wonders if there could ever be a better workplace for a palindrome competition than Bletchley ParkFollowing its best screenplay Oscar win, The Imitation Game is getting a second theatrical...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: bananas in race and comedy
There are both amusing and offensive uses for a banana in this week’s pick of the best cryptic cluesA carefully worded rebuke from Knut in the Independent. First of all, these two clues ...3d/7d Let’s...
View ArticleCrossword blog: Do crossworders tend to be quizzers too?
Solving cryptics and answering quizzes: they exercise different mental muscles – but is the appeal the same?The history of crosswords is one where they become less and less like quizzes. The puzzle...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: geese, crows and other creatures
Not all references to animals are references to animals, as revealed in the pick of the best cryptic cluesA term fondly familiar to all word buffs, suggestively clued by Morph (Meet the Setter) in the...
View ArticleCrossword blog: what do you call crosswords?
For you, is it a ‘crossword’, a ‘puzzle’, a ‘crossword puzzle’, or even a ‘cryptic’? And does it depend on who you’re talking to?Here’s Adrian Bell, the first crossword setter for the Times, talking to...
View ArticleCrossword blog: who is Atë?
Our roundup of this year’s 1 April cryptic pranking includes ‘new’ Guardian setter AtëLeaving aside the question of what we call cryptic crossword puzzles, I’ve been prompted to reflect on our...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: swinging from the polls
A word which – unusually – comes with a reliable story about its coiner, in the pick of the broadsheet cryptic crosswordsA Telegraph clue that I took to be current-affairs topical ...1ac/10ac Dodgy fee...
View ArticleCrossword blog: meet the letter J
A series looking at letters of the alphabet and what they mean in cryptic crossword clues. This week, the voiced palatal-alveolar affricate, better known as JYou’ve met A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I....
View ArticleCrossword roundup: election heroes and villains
Bribes, tirades and Tory decline – they’re all there in the crossword version of the election campaignHow cheering, now we know its unambiguous origin, to see a topical word back again, this time with...
View ArticleCryptic crosswords for beginners: revving it up
A series which demystifies the devices used in cryptic crosswords. This time: the ecclesiastical abbreviations of the C of EFrom Afrit (Prebendary of Wells Cathedral) to Araucaria (former rector of...
View ArticleCrossword blog: is it a selfie when someone else takes it?
A tale of three Dantes and various meanings of ‘selfie’ in the pick of the best cryptic clues750th anniversaries don’t come around very often. When they do, they should be cherished, if possible, in...
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