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Crossword roundup: clue become one
Alan Connor finds real and manufactured spice in his pick of the week's best – and chattiest – cryptic cluesClueing coincidenceIn Tuesday's FT, Phssthpok went winningly long in his clue …6d Storage for...
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How the Spectator crossword began
Alan Connor discovers how, in 1932, after much sniffing and harrumphing, the Spectator succumbed to the crossword crazeIt is nearly 100 years since the crossword as we know it was invented, first...
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Crossword roundup: Bye-bye to Banks
Alan Connor finds factories of wasp and roads of crow in his pick of the week's best – and most body-aware – cryptic cluesThe news in cluesThere was a poignant and unannounced theme in Monday's...
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Crossword blog: pencils, pens and unique solutions
Alan Connor asks whether your choice of writing implement reflects your feeling about whether every clue should have only one valid answerI'm always delighted to find that my inbox contains some...
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Crossword roundup: Bernie 'Ponzarelli' Madoff
Alan Connor finds ill-conceived investments and hidden gateways in his pick of the week's best – and most economical – cryptic cluesThe news in cluesEconomics professor Robert Skidelsky argues in these...
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Crossword blog: meet the setter – Doc
Alan Connor turns the tables on the torturers. In the spotlight this time is Tom Johnson – also known as Doc, Gozo, Didymus, Twudge, Busman …Tom Johnson is a setter whose puzzling seemingly cannot be...
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Crossword roundup: did you hear the one about the absurdist playwright?
Alan Connor finds poachers and gamekeepers, Irishmen and Scotsmen in his pick of the best – and most jokey – cryptic cluesCross witA cracking clue shares many qualities with a cracking joke –...
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Crossword blog: the Times crossword championship
Alan Connor struggles even to qualify for the annual speed competition for cryptic solversThis year is the year of the crossword, I told myself a few months ago, so maybe it should also be the year I...
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Crossword roundup: feline movie
Alan Connor finds royal baby excitement and tasteful procedures in his pick of the week's best – and most purging – cryptic cluesThe news in cluesToday, if you have anything resembling a human heart,...
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Crossword blog: How shall we celebrate the crossword centenary?
Alan Connor asks for help in planning the puzzling party of 2013What a marvellous time to be a crossword setter, a solver or indeed someone who writes about crosswords for the Guardian. On 21 December...
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Crossword roundup: when life gives you lemons, make alcopops
Alan Connor finds hidden punctuation and vintage comics in his pick of the week's best – and fizziest – cryptic cluesThe news in cluesComing up soon in Meet the Setter, our series of chats with those...
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Crossword blog: Meet the setter – Dac
Alan Connor turns the tables on the torturers. In the spotlight this time is David Crossland, also known as DacDavid Crossland was born in Lancashire in 1948. He has set both cryptic and definitional...
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Crossword roundup: little black squares and little white squares
Alan Connor finds integration and a mysterious new arrival in his pick of the best – and most sporting – cryptic cluesThe news in cluesWhile topical, Monday's Telegraph…6d Test centre where players try...
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Crossword blog: the Hungarian crossword suicide note
Alan Connor asks for your help in solving a sad mystery that started in Budapest in 1926It is one of the strangest images you will see on the internet.I happily grant you that the above claim is a...
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Crossword roundup: the fraggles and the muppets
Alan Connor finds Kermit turned into a prison simpleton in his pick of the best – and most interesting – cryptic cluesThe news in cluesAs the Financial Conduct Authority works its way through the banks...
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Crossword blog: are super-solvers born, not made?
Alan Connor peers into research on the intelligence of cryptic crossword solvers. When did you take up crosswording and how long do you spend on it?For years I've been responding to those wary of the...
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Crossword roundup: where do you start solving?
Alan Connor finds a menage à trois and Ted Heath in his pick of the best – and most alarming – cryptic cluesCrosswords about crosswordsIn typically ludic manner, Puck wrote a clue…12d From text I see...
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Crossword blog: what have we learned about ourselves?
To finish or not to finish – and are solvers artsy types or code-wranglers? Alan Connor looks at your experiences of solving cryptic puzzlesAfter looking at some new research into "fluid intelligence"...
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Crossword roundup: postmodern Pulpisms
Alan Connor restages the Britpop wars in an etymological context in his pick of the best – and most self-referential – cryptic cluesCrosswords about crosswordsLast time, we had a clue which alluded to...
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Crossword blog: Times championship new record
The speeds of the deeds in this year's Times National Crossword Championship are astonishingSadly, I was unable to make it to the Times National Crossword Championship on Saturday. Naturally, I did not...
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