03 Nov 2026, 10:15 PM

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Puzzle solvers’ unique way of thinking was utilised as a recruiting tool for Bletchley Park. The true enigmas, though, are the people who come up with them in the first place• Don’t get Cluesletter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe world of crossword setters is not enormous. A solver who had completed a puzzle which turned out to have been a recruiting tool for Bletchley Park recalled:I was told, though not so primitively, that chaps with twisted brains like mine might be suitable for a particular type of work as a contribution to the war effort.Take UMBRELLA at 77-Down. Today, crossword editors love to focus on a lively angle, such as the 2013 clue [Sidewalk cafe sight] or the trickier [Kind of insurance policy], first used in 1999. A 2007 acrostic puzzle even used [Prop for a filmed dance by Gene Kelly]. But in the first Times crossword, the clue is [Symbol of appeasement], possibly a nod to the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s famous rolled umbrella, carried during negotiations for the 1938 Munich Agreement. Talk about a deep cut.14d Overlapping signs for places of learning (9)

[ wordplay: two star signs which share a common letter ]

[ LIBRA + ARIES, but sharing their A ]

[ definition: places of learning ]Matt Damon gutted to receive partial cut at beginning and end of his film role? Continue reading...

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