In a remarkable feat of prescient wordplay, the creator of the Guardian's Genius crossword crafted a puzzle that perfectly mirrored a television phenomenon months before it aired. The November edition, Genius puzzle number 269, was devised in July, long before the UK became captivated by The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One.
A Puzzle Ahead of Its Time
When setter Glyph constructed the grid, the sceptical consensus was that a celebrity version of the hit show The Traitors would be a typical terrible TV idea. Critics argued that knowing the personalities in advance would ruin the suspense. Fast forward to broadcast, and the show captivated eleven million live viewers, proving its success and making the crossword's hidden theme astonishingly timely.
The Mechanics of Deception
The puzzle presented solvers with a unique and challenging instruction: "Entrants must pick a side." To uncover the theme, the majority of the down clues required a letter to be removed before they could be solved. When taken in clue order, these extra letters spelled out a crucial name: CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN, the show's presenter, described in the puzzle as "one who may not pick a side."
Further deepening the deception, four clues were deliberately ambiguous, offering two equally valid answers. This clever device directly echoed the core premise of The Traitors, where nothing is as it seems. The pairs of possible answers were:
- BEARS or BARES
- PATER or PRIOR
- FAT or OAT
- GOLFBALL or GOLFBAGS
The Ultimate Ambiguity
This duality culminated in the puzzle's central entry. Depending on a solver's choices through the ambiguous clues, the answer for T __ E __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ could legitimately be completed as either THE FAITHFUL or THE TRAITORS. This masterstroke meant the entire puzzle played the same mind games as the television series it unknowingly predicted, leaving each participant to ultimately decide their own allegiance within the grid.
The puzzle's complexity and layered meaning have been widely praised, with fans now eagerly anticipating what Glyph will devise next. Meanwhile, the crossword community has moved on to December's Genius challenge, which focuses on the word SCALES.
In the latest cluing conference, the audacity award went to Montano for a notably elaborate clue. Runners-up included Crowsfeet324 and a rare joint honour for Mr_Rob_T and Newlaplandes, showcasing the collaborative and positive nature of the comments section. The winning clue for SCALES was submitted by KenJam: "A major climbs ranges. A minor too."
The crossword editor's update also invites entries for the next challenge word, CAT BURNS, and recommends Alan Connor's book 188 Words for Rain, published by Ebury.
