An enjoyable and challenging Prize puzzle from Fed this week…
Month: June 2026
Private Eye (Cyclops / 832) Restrain Nominee
A fun one once again, taking me a while to get into, with plenty of nice PDMs.
Listener 4922 Elap Relationship
Few numerical Listeners are a walk in the park, but Elap’s exceptional Relationship
required ropes, harness, helmet and ice axes to reach its stratospheric summit.
Financial Times 18,404 by SOLOMON
A fun challenge indeed, from SOLOMON .
Guardian Cryptic 30037 Yank
Thank you to Yank. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Independent 12386 / Phi
It’s Friday, so, as with most Fridays, we have a puzzle from Phi in the Independent.
Independent 12,385 by Bluejacket
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.
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.”
Financial Times 18,402 by IO
Phew! A meaty, but quite exceptional challenge from IO.
Guardian 30,035 / Tramp
Tramp makes a welcome return quite soon after his recent Prize puzzle
Independent 12384 / Eccles
We have another good crossword from Eccles this Wednesday.
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 30,034 by Vlad
A tricky solve, with many fun clues and several bits of parsing that needed more time at the end. Many thanks to Vlad for the puzzle.