Methuselah is here to provide our morning brain exercise.
Day: 23 April 2026
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 29,988 by Brockwell
Thanks to Brockwell, this was a fun challenge and my favourites were 7dn, 8dn, and 16dn.
Financial Times 18,353 by NEO
Neo is this morning’s setter.
Enigmatic Variations No.1742 – Prime by Arcadia
“In the 180° symmetrical grid, two unclued entries (each of 13 letters) give the names of an author and a sequel to their PRIME work. Cells illustrating a counterexample of a PRIME quotation from the work, involving a further unclued entry of four letters, must be highlighted (13 letters, three words). Clues are in normal order, the wordplay in PRIME examples leading to an extra letter, spelling out the name of a charitable trust. In the final grid solvers must change two letters and then highlight the trust’s initials, a novel and a publication (three, four and six letters respectively in straight lines), all of which were PRIME creations of the author. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”