The Guardian is approaching its millionth cryptic clue. There is, of course, no overall database that will let us know when the millionth appears but we can infer the number from a milestone that comes this week.
On Thursday, it will be Guardian Cryptic crossword No 30,000. We started work in January 1929: first weekly, then twice a week and soon daily, alongside quicks, quick cryptics, quiptics, Geniuses and all the rest of it.
As a celebration, we’re taking a look at what the puzzles were like 10,000 and 15,000 puzzles ago. Cryptic 20,000 is sadly unplayable online for reasons that will be apparent as soon as you look at the wild content of the pdf linked to below. But 20,001 gives as much a taste of the era: it’s by the great Crispa. Today’s solvers need to get used to a higher word-count in some clues than they may be used to and the Guardian humour is on full display.
We’ll include a pdf of Crispa’s puzzle too for those who are nostalgic for the look and feel of 1994.
No 1, from when puzzles were still anonymous
No 276, likewise …
… along with its solution.
No 15,000, from Custos, with two grids
Clue sniffing
A piece from 1982 by my predecessor John Perkin.
No 20,000, from Araucaria …
… in rhyming couplets, then solution and how we marked that milestone:
And of course we have something special planned for Thursday.
Entries have closed for April’s Genius. As you can see from the solution, left, KGB was not playing by the usual rules: the completed grid and first set of instructions lead the solver to a grid which contains a new set of instructions and in fact a new in-puzzle puzzle. Very well done if you followed the breadcrumbs.
This month’s Genius is by Odo and is now live.
Many thanks for your cluing-conference clues for QUIP. The audacity award is Calmasyoulike’s for the preposterous “Short retort from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobe”. The runners-up are Jacob_Busby’s neat “Sharp shot from French team abandoning wingers” and YogicBear’s poignant “Messed up QI joke”; the winner is the lean and devious “Having no ecstasy, supply crack”.
Kludos to Mr_Rob_T. Please leave entries for THIRTY THOUSAND below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you have spotted – and enjoy Thursday.