Crossword blog
The crossword blog looks at the smartest and wittiest clues from all the cryptics. Come and share the joy and frustration of crossword culture
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A grid representing cold-war Europe and an impressive debut, in our pick of the cryptics
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Next in our collection of tips and tricks: watching out for the phonetic alphabet
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Hugh Stephenson reflects on the things one learns from crosswords
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An apparently infinite chain of Cockney rhymes and the Brexit effect in the pick of the best of the broadsheets’ cryptic clues
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Dry Januaries come and go, but alcohol is involved in almost all cryptic crosswords: here’s how to decode references to pubs, wine, beer and even abstention
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Our collection of the cream of the cryptic clues features an eclectic mix of the great and good’s body parts
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A special puzzle, an upcoming event and a Q&A with the editor of crossword magazine 1 Across
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Crosswords offer an unpalatable answer to what lies ahead ...
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A collection of seasonal references, not all of them celebratory, in the best of the cryptic clues
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Hugh Stephenson looks back on 12 months that were too hard and too easy
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Crossword puzzles often use abbreviations from the periodic table to create parts of clues
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When life is very, very frightening, crosswords are there to reflect it – just open your eyes
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One measure of a crossword’s ‘difficulty’ is how long it takes us to solve it. Is it the only measure?
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Have crosswords beaten the dictionaries in the race to identify the words that sum up 2016?
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An interview with Guardian setter Boatman about his new collection of puzzles and the stories behind them – including the dangers of messing with archaeopteryxes
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A bumper crop of puzzle publications is out there to help you into 2017
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A 950th anniversary and a diacritic on the decline in the pick of the cryptic clues
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An exciting discovery in the market place at Izmir
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A trek around Liverpool, Lancashire and Salford for the origins of DO ONE
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Does cracking enough crosswords give you the skills of a super-solver? And who’s going to pay for the puzzles of the future?
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The language and characters of Roald Dahl in the pick of the best of the cryptic clues
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Two unusual puzzles to start the week, one of which you may have helped to compile
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A crossword clue accidentally anticipates an international egg incident in our pick of the best of the broadsheets’ cryptic clues
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Our cryptic crossword solvers seem deeply divided as to whether they have become too difficult or not. Hugh Stephenson looks at some of the evidence.
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The apparent mystery of the great Olympic theme puzzles that never appeared
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An avant-garde artwork containing a crossword has been filled in – is the result art too? And where else can you find a puzzle hanging in a gallery?
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While some recent clues were derived from current events, others preferred to look back ...
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In a sister feature to our Meet the Setter series, we find out which words are used in cryptic crossword clues to indicate each of the letters of the alphabet.
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A look at some of the latest examples of the continuing effects of Brexit on the crossword world
Crossword roundup: from snooker to soccer, via croquet and rugby