Claw last appeared in the Genius series in August of last year, with a very amusing puzzle based on a Castlemaine XXXX TV advertisement. Other than that, there are no other appearances by Claw that I can find in 2025, but such an accomplished setter must surely have other puzzles published, perhaps using different aliases.
Guardian Genius
Genius 270 by Pangakupu
Pangakupu provides December’s Genius
Guardian Genius 269 set by Glyph
Once again I get to blog a Genius by a new setter – so welcome, Glyph!
Guardian Genius 268 by Odo
A debut Genius from Odo…whose real identity was revealed to me at the York get-together…
Guardian Genius 267 / Soup
Soup is a regular Genius setter. He sets interesting and challenging puzzles with clever twists. Let’s see what he gives us this month.
Guardian Genius 266 – Claw
The special instructions are slightly mysterious, though with enough information to get us started:
Guardian Genius 265 by KGB
An unusual device characterised this particular puzzle (and made blogging it particularly challenging).
Genius no 264 by Pangakupu
June’s Genius is set by Pangakupu.
The preamble says:
Six answers are modified, with one part of each replaced by itself. Their clues are presented in ascending order so that none is entered in the numbered space indicated. Wordplay in each remaining clue gives an extra letter; these spell out the nature of the replacement. Lengths in brackets indicate the number of spaces to be filled at that number; hyphenation and indications such as ‘7 words’ are omitted.
Guardian Genius 263
This crossword can be found at https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2025/04/24/Genius_crossword_No_263.pdf
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Guardian Genius 262 by Enigmatist
Just like London buses…you wait ages (since 2018!) for an Enigmatist to blog, and then three come along in a row – two recent Grauniad Saturday Prize puzzles, and now Genius 262…
Important maintenance notice
Important maintenance notice
New security measure
IMPORTANT (updated) I’ve now changed the security level from “critical” to “high”. Thanks all for your indulgence. Many of you will have experienced slow response times and/or error messages on Monday. This morning, … Read more >>
Guardian Genius 260 – Karla
“Each across clue contains a word that must be removed before solving. The first and last letters from these words, in clue order, explain changes required, to varying degrees of effect, in all … Read more >>
Genius No 259 by Picaroon
A reasonably straightforward Genius this month.