This is Bluejacket’s fourth Thursday puzzle of 2026, and I’ve been the blogger for three of them in a row: perhaps he’s on the same four-week cycle as the Indy blogging rota.
Day: 18 June 2026
Financial Times 18,403 by STEERPIKE
A typical Steerpike puzzle.
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 30,036 by Paul
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/30036.
Enigmatic Variations No. 1750 – Protegees by Vismut
“Eight across clues have an extra word to be removed before solving; its position in the clue indexes which of its letters to select. When read in clue order these letters might be a description of someone and when unjumbled what they were interested in. A nickname occupies the top row of the grid and the names of the PROTEGEES it refers to run around the rest of the perimeter. The unclued entries should be completed with their study groups, one of which is hanging upside down. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”