“The series of crosswords, now known as Inquisitor, began in 1988, headed simply Crossword. It has since appeared every Saturday, except on Christmas Days and with one accidental omission. Changes in presentation have occurred, but the team of contributors has continued to develop naturally, as has the style. Today’s crossword is number 1106 in the series. In future, Inquisitor will be numbered accordingly.”
Mike Laws, Crossword Editor, Boxing Day 2009.
The first blog on this site, by Pete Biddlecombe, contains some more information on the name changes and number restarts.
Day: 1 January 2026
Observer Jumbo Cryptic: 2025 by Calypso
Happy Mummers’ Day!
Inquisitor index: Setters
Some setters use more than one pseudonym …
Independent 12,241 by Raich
Happy New Year from Raich, and from me – best wishes for 2026.
Guardian 29,892 / Vlad
A cracker of a puzzle from Vlad to lead us into the new year.
Financial Times 18,256 by JASON
Happy New Year to all setters, bloggers, commenters and lurkers.
Guardian Special 3 by Ludwig
There have been requests for a blog for the Christmas special crossword from Ludwig – which I found on the e-paper app on 23 December. It was in the printed Christmas supplement, some of which can be found online here, the puzzle is to be found here
Inquisitor index: 2026
Puzzles 1941 –
Enigmatic Variations No.1726 – Gripping Yarns by Luxor
“Two clues are provided for each of the shaded rows. Solvers must reorder the letters of their answers to give two creatures which might feature in GRIPPING YARNS. These are to be entered consecutively. Solvers must highlight a three-word phrase (13 cells in a straight line) describing the overall theme. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”