By Alan Connor
Every so often, I鈥檓 listening to someone and I think: this person 鈥 this is a crossword person. Most recently, the person was comedian Angela Barnes. And this time, I did what an American would describe as 鈥渞eaching out鈥 to see whether she鈥檇 ever entertained the idea of writing a puzzle.
Angela, it transpired, had been to an online solving session hosted by Paul during the pandemic and had 鈥渢ry to set a cryptic鈥 on her bucket list:
The puzzle appears today. I asked Ariel, as we can now say, what it was like switching to 鈥渟etting mode鈥:
And if you haven鈥檛 solved it yet, look away before these words about the theme:
In other news, an intriguing Genius from KGB awaits your attention, and entries are closed for Pangakupu鈥檚.
In the latter, the preamble told us, apparently unhelpfully, that:
A bit of head-scratching revealed that we need to think musically and so an answer such as MUDFLAT needed its D鈾 to become a C鈾, and the entry is really MUCSHARP.
In our cluing conference for COINCIDENCE, the runners-up are Montano鈥檚 letter bank: 鈥淐orrespondence encrypted in code, with some letters repeated鈥, and Chri5Miller鈥檚 evocative: 鈥淪urprising harmony from Chopin, Nicki, Edge and Cher 鈥 what are the odds?鈥; the winner is the not-unaudacious: 鈥淔ortune from a copper, some other coppers and more coppers lacking coppers鈥 character鈥
Kludos to Rakali. Please leave entries for COINCIDENCE below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you鈥檝e spotted. And the Pendorne mystery is solved! Solution next time.
鈥 188 Words for Rain by Alan Connor is published by Ebury (拢16.99). To support the Guardian and the Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply