Crossword blog: compiling a cryptic crossword app
Alan Connor talks to Denise Sutherland about word lists, multiple meanings and what smartphones can offer solversSome solves work best as unarmed combat. No trips to the bookshelf, no...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: from poll to polly, from Spam to spam
Alan Connor finds Monty Pythonesque self-reference in his pick of the best cryptic cluesSometimes it's the themes closest to my heart which elude me until the end of the solve, even when they're...
View ArticleCrossword blog: Weird Al and the 'rules' of cryptics
Prescriptivism can be found in grammar, orthography and, of course, crosswords. So do the tribes overlap?The best way to watch Weird Al Yankovic's Word Crimes is to put Blurred Lines out of your mind...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: Sporting bullies and in-jokes
Alan Connor finds the Commonwealth Games rendered in cryptic form in his pick of the best crossword cluesWe learned when we spoke to Gaff that whenever there's a big event, it's worth seeing whether...
View ArticleDevotees of Araucaria called to contribute to documentary
Alan Connor talks to the makers of a forthcoming documentary about legendary Guardian crossword compiler Araucaria, otherwise known as John GrahamThe Guardian is working with Pulse Films on a short...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: Michael Gove out of office, but not off-grid
Alan Connor finds Tories past, present and future in his pick of the best cryptic cluesThere's no silly season on the puzzle pages. Following the reshuffle, Tramp's Guardian puzzle seemed to have been...
View ArticleCrossword blog: where are the female setters?
Women are underrepresented in crosswording in terms of setting, at least. Surely computers are not to blame?Anna Shechtman is one of the most interesting figures on the American puzzle scene. She sets;...
View ArticleCrossword blog: are crosswords Orwellian or Selfish?
Alan Connor hopes that George Orwell would enjoy the messy, long-winded aspects of todays cryptic crosswordsThe silly season isnt peremptorily asinine. Amid the non-news, stories about language tend to...
View ArticleHow to solve a cryptic crossword crack 10 of our clues
The British crossword is a linguistic workout, none more so than the cryptic. Can you solve our 10 clues?A good vocabulary helps: heres to enlarge yoursTackle some very hard puzzlesHow to crack quizzes...
View ArticleHow to win quizzes from pub contests to Mastermind
The question editor on TVs Only Connect offers his tips plus writer and comedian Charlie Higson tells us why hes a quiz fanHow to crack cryptic crosswordsSome very tough puzzlesRachel Riley on...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: See ye efter, wag-at-the-wa?
What would Scottish independence mean for crosswords? Heres this weeks pick of the best and clamjamphriest cryptic cluesHow to imagine crosswords in an independent Scotland? No longer can the Sassenach...
View ArticleCrossword blog: an end to flying colours
Whats the best way to visually depict what is going on in a cryptic clue?A timely spot of housekeeping.This post comes to you in new clothes, or rather via the Guardians new content-management system....
View ArticleCrossword roundup: pantomime from highbrow to low
Can you have a HELICOPTER without a PILOT? And how long has PANTOMIME been a dirty word?As if in response to last weeks party-political obituary in a Times puzzle ...10ac Not entirely dead, UKIP shows...
View ArticleCrossword blog: clarifying without scarifying
How to demystify cryptic crossword devices? Viz comic may be of help ...When considering any serious quasi-editorial questions, I ask myself first: what would Viz do?pic.twitter.com/IRN1j6qBaS23d Old...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: are gnomes necessarily gnomic?
Alan Connor navigates Greek gnomes, Roman noses and Roman gnomes in the pick of the recent cryptic cluesIts always a pleasure to see the same word or phrase clued in different ways in different papers...
View ArticleCrossword blog: watching a champion solver at work
Mark Goodliffe has won the Times Crossword Championship for the eighth time. Alan Connor watches, not in shock, but in aweA samurai in civvies, the figure of Mark Goodliffe compels the gaze as...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: ghosts in the marketplace
Autumnal imagery and the ancient roots of spooky words as Alan Connor hunts the best cryptic cluesAs the sun makes a habit of disappearing earlier, that other kind of setter is evoking timely images....
View ArticleCrossword blog: Meet the setter Picaroon
Alan Connor turns the tables on the torturers. Under the spotlight this time is James Brydon, aka PicaroonPicaroon has been setting for the Guardian since March 2012. His first puzzle arrived so fully...
View ArticleCrossword roundup: Johnny Middle-Earth
Alan Connor finds undying poetry and evasive hobbits in his pick of the best cryptic clues As we know from our encounter with him here, Gaff is a specialist in anniversary puzzles and a dab hand at...
View ArticleCrossword blog: stop this madness
Would you prefer not to see clues that use mental health slang for wordplay?The good people who made felt hats used to come into contact with a load of mercurous nitrate, and the effect on their brains...
View Article