Even Listen News Today

Pangrams and deliberate ambiguity in our pick of the best of the broadsheets’ cryptics

Prime ministers past and, at the time of writing, present – in our pick of the best of the broadsheets’ cryptic clues

New words for old things in our pick of the best of the broadsheets’ cryptic clues

We take in 3D crosswords and wordplay in other forms in our pick of the best of the broadsheets’ cryptics

Another puzzle in our American-style series – along with some tips on how to tackle it

Während in Clubs wieder eng getanzt werden darf, werden Sechsjährige streng reglementiert. Doch Eltern sind zum Teil selbst an der Misere der Kinder schuld.

[ [ NIL SUM, backwards ] definition: fabric ] … for MUSLIN. Italians who dealt in the fabric, we’re told, acquired the name Mussolini, and the fabric itself could once be of gold or silk, manufactured in Mosul, in northern Iraq. Nowadays, it’s a lovely plain name for a lovely plain item, although American English manages to render it plainer still in the form “burp cloth”. Mosul itself seems to mean something like “The Joining-Up Place”, referring to its hand...

opossum Outside chocolate, “O”s don’t get asked to be silent desperately often, and silent first syllables are always worthy of inspection. Here’s another, and the subject of our next challenge. The name of the Florida labourers’ community Umalibo comes, the locals will tell you, from a Native American name meaning “the surf sounds lovely”, but nowadays, no one says the “U”; reader, how would you clue MALIBU? Cluing competition Many thanks for your clues for OOLONG. Of the “...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Love’s Labour’s Lost. And they may then notice that the initial letters of those titles spell out MORTAL. That probably sounds involved. There are conventions and types of meta, though: so it’s not so mad as it may appear. Indie setters also provide this kind of thing, such as Pete Muller’s Muller Monthly Music Meta – and Pete is behind the Post’s series. Here, the solver does know the nature of the meta each time. Having solved...

drink (10,3) [ wordplay: synonym for “love” containing (“coming round”) synonym for “scoff” without last letter (“short”), then name of a meal] [DARLING containing JEER – R, then TEA] [ definition: drink] … for DARJEELING TEA. Teas can get their names from their colours (black, say, or yellow), from where they’re grown (Assam) or from what they look like (gunpowder); my favourites are more involved, like the red bush of rooibos, Darjeeling itself (“land of the thunderbol...