As we approach a milestone in Guardian setting, here are some treats from the archive
T
he 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.
