The Guardian, in its wisdom, has printed the solution to today’s Maskarade Jumbo immediately below the actual puzzle, in the printed edition of the newspaper and in the Guardian Editions App.
However, if you go to the free online crossword webpage HERE you will find that the solution is hidden behind a separate link, so you can access the puzzle there without immediately seeing the solution.
Given that the solution is already available in the paper, we will publish a blog solution just after midnight, on Monday morning, rather than waiting a week as we normally do for the weekly Prize puzzle. We realise that this may not please every solver, but we think it the best compromise.
Working on the Guardian cryptic crossword bank holiday special by Masksrade. There is a mistake in 45/65. It states the answer is (3,3,4:5) but it most definitely should be (3,4,3:5).
Amazingly, this was the first of the special clues that we figured out and that opened up the whole crossword to us.
I was about to say much the same.
I sometimes find Maskarade’s specials a bit of a slog once I’ve got the idea, but this one kept my interest all the way. And I only had to check one of the thematic answers.
Like Robruss24 @1, 45/65 was the first one I figured out after staring blankly at the special clues for a while.
To date I have really enjoyed Maskarade’s specials (tho only done a few as only started trying them quite recently). I particularly liked the one where the special clues were all six letter words of places and had to be placed into the grid where they fitted. I also liked the one with the chain where the last three letters of one answer were the first three letters of another clue.
We enjoyed the puzzle and have just one solution we can’t parse.
But, no spoilers — well wait for Monday’s blog.