Every so often, I’m listening to someone and I think: this person – this is a crossword person. Most recently, the person was comedian Angela Barnes. And this time, I did what an American would describe as “reaching out” to see whether she’d ever entertained the idea of writing a puzzle.
Angela, it transpired, had been to an online solving session hosted by Paul during the pandemic and had “try to set a cryptic” on her bucket list:
When I was given an opportunity to have a go at setting a puzzle for the Guardian – well, I bit the editor’s hand off.
The puzzle appears today. I asked Ariel, as we can now say, what it was like switching to “setting mode”:
The switch from a solver’s brain to a setter’s brain feels quite subtle, but I really like the reversal, working backwards, where there are myriad correct possibilities instead of just one.
And if you haven’t solved it yet, look away before these words about the theme:
I know that F1 is a sport that divides people. It divides me. After all, I’m a woolly lefty who likes a sport with a ginormous carbon footprint – but what are human beings if not hypocritical contradictions?
F1 is not just a display of exceptional focus and reflexes; it’s also a masterclass in engineering, fluid and aerodynamics, material science and sheer maths and physics. Something for everyone!
In other news, an intriguing Genius from KGB awaits your attention, and entries are closed for Pangakupu’s.
In the latter, the preamble told us, apparently unhelpfully, that:
Six answers are modified, with one part of each replaced by itself.
A bit of head-scratching revealed that we need to think musically and so an answer such as MUDFLAT needed its D♭ to become a C♯, and the entry is really MUCSHARP.
In our cluing conference for COINCIDENCE, the runners-up are Montano’s letter bank: “Correspondence encrypted in code, with some letters repeated”, and Chri5Miller’s evocative: “Surprising harmony from Chopin, Nicki, Edge and Cher … what are the odds?”; the winner is the not-unaudacious: “Fortune from a copper, some other coppers and more coppers lacking coppers’ character”
Kludos to Rakali. Please leave entries for COINCIDENCE below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you’ve spotted. And the Pendorne mystery is solved! Solution next time.
188 Words for Rain by Alan Connor is published by Ebury (£16.99). To support the Guardian and the Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply