This week’s 11 x 11 crossword from the Guardian intended to teach cryptic crosswords, found here
Guardian
Guardian Prize 29996 / Fed
The Guardian Prize crossword this week is set by Fed, who is a fairly regular Guardian setter these days. He has also set for the Independent as Bluth, but I haven’t seen his name there so far this year.
Special Genius
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2026/may/08/may-2026-bonus-genius-crossword
Guardian 30,001: Omnibus
Last time I blogged an Omnibus puzzle (speculated to be a compilation from multiple setters) I found some of the clues a bit clunky, but this one seems a lot smoother. Thanks to Omnibus.
Guardian Cryptic 30,000 by Arachne
The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hello everyone. I hope you will forgive this impostor for bringing you the blog for a very special puzzle. When I agreed to cover for scchua I had no idea it would be number 30,000. Once I realised I felt a bit sheepish for taking this in place of one of the regular Guardian bloggers. But as it’s an Arachne I admit I don’t feel too bad!
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 29,999 by Imogen
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29999.
Guardian 29,998 / Pasquale
Pasquale sets our Tuesday challenge
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 29,997 by Dice
Apologies for a delayed and slightly rushed blog today due to some internet issues. I think this is Dice’s first Guardian Cryptic, following a number of Quiptics and Quicks. Many thanks to Dice, this was good fun.
Guardian Quiptic 1,380 by Pangakupu
My four-weekly blog of the Guardian Quiptic puzzle, the online only Sunday Cryptic found here
Guardian Genius 274 by KGB
I had been on tenterhooks since the Magpie get-together in January, where KGB informed me he had the April Genius slot, and I started having traumatic flashbacks to his previous one (Genius 265, the ‘redaction puzzle‘)…
Guardian Quick Cryptic 109 by Dice
This week’s 11 x 11 crossword from the Guardian intended to teach cryptic crosswords, found here
Guardian Prize Prize crossword No 29,990 by Brummie
A straightforward unthemed (unless we’ve missed something) puzzle from Brummie for this week’s Prize challenge.
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 29,995 by Paul
Thanks to Paul for the puzzle…
Guardian 29,994: Tramp
Tramp’s puzzles are always fun to solve and blog, and this was no exception. A couple of tricky bits of parsing, and an ingenious long anagram, which is something of a trademark of this setter. Thanks to Tramp
Guardian Cryptic crossword No 29,993 by Brummie
Brummie raises a chuckle this morning.