This page is for the discussion of general crossword related matters and other topics of interest.
Comments posted before 2026-05-23 can be found here.
Never knowingly undersolved
This page is for the discussion of general crossword related matters and other topics of interest.
Comments posted before 2026-05-23 can be found here.
Some years ago I printed out the classic Guardian 16176, which features the classic and well-beloved Araucaria Anagram.
After picking it up every six months or so I have just put in the last three clues. But there’s one of them I just can’t get the last bit of parsing on.
Obviously I came here to see a blog. But, nothing, alas! And the crossword itself seems to have vanished from the Guardian Archive.
I was wondering if, perhaps, someone else might want to try to solve it? If you can find a copy to put up / link to?
There’s a copy from the archive scan at https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8f388bd19bdcb075b308b811bec5fd155c640e8c/0_0_883_2048/master/883.jpg?width=1140&dpr=2&s=none&crop=none . Which ones are you stuck on?
29A. Can’t make AD from first to get old…
First = A
Old copper = D , pre-decimal currency LSD
Green = vert .
Thanks Roz!
Piers, hello. Haven’t crossed paths in too long! Not wholly examined but what if instead of getting it from “first to get old” you got those two letters from even more of the clue? Thanks for heads-up Hamish.
Hey Alan! Long time no see indeed! Hope you’re keeping well.
Ta for the tip. And I notice that not only has the crossword in question been restored to the Guardian Archive, it’s now fillable in the new style too …
@8 (& @6)
Thanks Alan. Above and beyond!
I never do the Guardian Genius puzzle because it is online only but for the 30000 special someone brought it to me at work for a bit of help . I see the blog here has now arrived so can I ask if online was there a female version as well ?
I also recall there was a female name in the puzzle so the Guardian must know we exist .
Roz @ 11
The blog mentions a female genius who, sadly, was overlooked when the Nobel Prizes for the DNA helix were announced. There is a comment on the Genius blog that shares your disappointment at the lack of females in the grid.
Thank you Duncan , my mother named me after Rosalind Franklin . Sadly she died well before the Nobel and they are not awarded posthumously but she would probably have been overlooked anyway . I was frankly staggered by the sheer maleness of this puzzle but I suppose it is no surprise really . I wonder if Katharine Viner knows about it .
Roz: I too came to this for the first time today because, like you, I only do the puzzles in the paper. The grid contains two women: WINONA, clued as such, and SUE, by coincidence. ROZ is very nearly there, which would have made a small difference to the genius imbalance; but, seriously, it’s crass, isn’t it?
[I saw a wonderful orange moon for a few minutes shortly after 9.30 yesterday, but thereafter it was masked by thin cloud, at least until I went to bed. Thanks again.]
Thanks Hector , I am sure there is no intent to insult women but this is the Guardian not the Daily Heil and I expect better .
[ I got a good moonset whilst swimming early Sunday morning . The most common entry for my star-gazing diary is just one word – cloudy . ]
Many thanks to Jay for the recommendation last Christmas Day to consider the Azed 249 Christmas crossword from 1976. Jay gave the link.
It was a brilliant workout. Not my usual style of crossword at all. Got nowhere the first few tries then broke through this morning. Great stuff.
I haven’t found the solution but am confident all is correct.
Cheers, Jay
Thanks Choldunk , glad you enjoyed it .
It’s post #39 in the previous General Discussion page if anyone else is still feeling Christmassy .
A significant update for Chambers App users today which now includes a full text search feature. This means you can search for words contained in definitions, not just the header words. You can also add a second search term with conditions (e.g. A plus B, A but not B etc).
I am sorry to announce that Wendy Law, who set as Hectence for The Guardian Quiptic and Zamorca for the FT, died last Thursday, 4th June.
She was at home, comfortable and peaceful, and with both her daughters at her side.
@18
Please respond via this post: https://fifteensquared.net/2026/06/11/rip-hectence/
Of the 40 comments on Pasquale’s Cryptic 30030 starting with Maria @ 25 29 were entirely or partly about the same topic. Reading them became tedious after a while, particularly as some were not very pleasantly phrased.
It’s not something Admin could be asked to take action on lest he be accused of censorship. Could I ask commenters in situations like this to ask themselves if they are contributing anything new and perhaps to exercise some self-censorship, please?
Not sure this is the right place, but is there a blog for today’s cryptic, set by Quince – Saturday 13th June? Thanks
Jayjay@21: I made a similar comment on Site Feedback. No response there, either.
Pino@20. Thanks for your well-considered riposte following that little flare up last week on the Pasquale. The original poster did describe what she had written as a “rant”, so was asking for a robust response. Mostly it was good natured, I thought. Well done for categorising and counting them all. 😀
I often change my mind about posting on threads like that, and maybe some who joined in could have restrained themselves as you point out. But I don’t think too much harm was done on this occasion.
I don’t come to this page (nor read the G blog) very often, so I’m late in to thank Piers@1 for bringing that Araucaria puzzle to my attention, and Alan Connor for digitalizing it, and Roz and him for explaining the one that had me stumped too!
15 and 17 were sublime, I thought.
There’s a post on r/crosswords asking if anyone can help with the parsing of this clue by Quantum, published in the Guardian’s first book of cryptics, in 2003. Answer is SANDPIT. Any ideas?
Pinter’s round in “The Duke” is for tots (7)
Pino@20 Well here’s the thing, because that particular blog before the controversy was a good example of how tedious the Guardian blog has become, with the majority of posts repeating what has already been said (in this case that they have never seen a particular word spelt the way it was spelt in the solution). The misogyny debate added a bit of vim to proceedings, although it should have been much shorter if participants had recognised that the Guardian crossword is officially supposed to be woke – here.
It would help curtail the tedium in both cases if there were greater awareness of the Comment Guidelines that were drawn up in 2020.
Coloradan@25: Very strange. Quantum was Eric Burge, who had an impressive record in the Ximenes and Azed clue-writing competitions (andlit.org.uk). You might therefore expect his style to be technically sound, more conventional than off-the-wall. I must have done many of his Guardian puzzles, but too long ago (he died in 2008) to remember any distinguishing characteristics. If “Pinter’s” here were a misprint of “Pintas” (with or without the apostrophe) we would at least have elements of a clue: D (= Duke), anagram of PINTAS, SANDPIT something mainly used by children (= tots). But the clue would still be wildly unsound and nonsensical in its surface reading.
I haven’t tried to find this puzzle in the Guardian archive but I suppose it’s possible that an editing error led to the wrong clue being included in the book. That view would carry more weight if I could think of a plausible solution to the clue as printed. But I can’t.
Thanks Hector@27 for the fascinating insight into this setter’s identity and reputation. Your speculation matches the best theory put forward over on the subreddit, where it was pointed out that Pinter did publish some early poetry under the pseudonym “Pinta”. So at best a bit of an indirect anagram I reckon.
I am confused by some of my posts being denied access and then allowed after a minor edit. Today a post was denied and then posted twice. What am I doing wrong?
Do setters have challenges among themselves by any chance? Ie have a random word to make into a clue and/or to be an answer?
Last week it seemed to be the word ‘pink’ – we had coral, carnation (twice)? There have been others but as I write this, I can’t recall any!?
Nini9er@30: There was a time when I would notice a word cropping up as an answer in Guardian crosswords with suspicious frequency over a fairly short period. I used to wonder whether the editor had specified the word in order to see what different setters did with it. This is quite a long time ago so perhaps it was a foible of a previous editor. Like you, I can’t remember examples.
Ninier@30 as I do at least six crosswords every day, I often notice the same words cropping up in different crosswords, sometimes on the same day, sometimes the next day.
Today I noticed that two solutions in both the Independent and Everyman were the same (although clued differently).
Since one of them is Everyman, I don’t think I should say what those solutions were just yet.
Hello all.
I’m afraid I’m not in the ‘crossword’ universe anymore – partly due to ill-health.
I’ve just had a message that one of my puzzles, my first Independent one, has been re-published in the ‘i’ newspaper.
That’s after nearly four years!
Should I have been notified about this?
Personally, I wouldn’t have submitted anything to the ‘i’. Do they have a crossword editor (Mike H perhaps)?
Do they pay royalty?
Just some questions – maybe someone here can answer.
The Guardian app has just launched a new way of presenting all its crosswords – on my phone, anyway. It hasn’t reached my tablet yet or Mr. C’s phone. I’m not a Beta tester. I’m really struggling to get on with it. Different features and colour highlighting, cleaner look but somehow it gives me total brain freeze as far as finding the solutions (not just the cryptic which is Paul today). I can’t see the whole grid, and moving from clue to clue seems more awkward. I really don’t want to have to print out the hard copy version. Is this just me? Bit annoyed. 🥴
Crossbar@34: there is a third way between the dead-tree printout and the app: use the fully interactive version of the crossword available on the Guardian website via your browser.
Crossbar @34 – I use a fourth way of accessing the Guardian Crossword – on the newspaper app/Guardian app on my phone, where crosswords are available electronically, under the puzzles tab. It’s similar to the browser on a laptop or tablet (not the Editions app, where crosswords aren’t interactive), and using the arrows takes you to the next clue.
Myself @33 – I’ve just learned that the practice of passing Independent crosswords to the ‘i’ after a few years, is a regular procedure, so perhaps I was wrong to have a gripe about it!
Gladys@35 & Shanne@36 thanks for your replies. I am aware of the alternatives, it’s just that I’m feeling grumpy that they’ve changed the way the interactive puzzles on the app work. My preferred way for enjoying a puzzle is pen & paper – it’s that feel of ink on paper and being able to see the whole grid and all the clues at once. For various reasons I had to settle for using the previous app version on my phone, which I prefer to the website one. I expect I’ll get used to the new one.