Crossword roundup: in which we reclaim the word ‘mob’

In the sample clues below, the links take you to explainers from our beginners series. The setter’s name often links to an interview with him or her, in case you feel like getting to know these people better.

Puzzling elsewhere

Do you solve in bed? If so, do you use a pencil? I ask because of some important questions in this Telegraph piece …

Each night, while filling out the crossword, her husband gets Biro on the pillowcases. Which means that, each morning, they need washing.

… from puzzle editor Chris Lancaster; in all seriousness, the same editor has written, in response to the Roald Dahl brouhaha, about sensible ways of avoiding unnecessary upset:

If we see words such as ‘clergyman’ or ‘policeman’ in a compiler’s clue, we reach for the editorial red pen and change these to ‘cleric’ or ‘police officer’.

While we’re at it, the Financial Times bids farewell to crossword editor Colin Inman …

I have turned away dozens of men, some who have had an overinflated idea of their merit. I have turned away very few women.

… in a piece by his successor Roger Blitz which is well worth your time.

The news in clues

As the health secretary lumbers through another month, a timely clue from Neo in the Financial Times …

5d/13a Cause problems in new NHS strike: another war won about money? (5,1,7,2,3,5)
[ wordplay: anagram (‘new’) of NHSSTRIKEANOTHERWARWON, containing (‘about’) abbreviation for ‘penny’ (‘money’) ]
[ THROWASANNERINTHEWORKS containing P ]
[ wordplay: cause problems ]

… for THROW A SPANNER IN THE WORKS. Meanwhile, as we suspected, the name Biden is of much less use to setters than the name of the man in Mar-a-Lago. Case in point: Monk in the Independent references the incumbent, not for direct use in wordplay but simply to indicate that an American spelling is needed …

26a Biden’s example of capacity to engage old loaf (6)
[ wordplay: American (‘Biden’s) spelling of ‘litre’ (‘example of capacity’), containing (‘to engage’) abbrev. for ‘old’ ]
[ LITER containing O ]
[ wordplay: loaf ]

… to get to LOITER.

Latter patter

From the quiptic, the Guardian’s puzzle “for beginners and those in a hurry”, Pasquale’s clue …

1d Participating in film, obscure crowds (4)
[ wordplay: hidden inside (‘participating in’) FILMOBSCURE ]
[ definition: crowds ]

… for MOBS. “Mob” is a word that doesn’t try to hide its origins, though they are easy to miss. Mobs move around; they are mobile. There’s also an arch little attempt at a joke. Here’s Johnson’s dictionary quoting Dryden …

… so, not the nobility but the mobility. In an early apparent example of reclamation, EP Thompson tells us in The Making of the English Working Class, the word changed sense …

… the reformers, for their part, worked to create an organised public opinion, and despised the technique of unleashing the mob. ‘Mobility’ was a term proudly adopted by 19th-century Radicals and Chartists for their peaceable and well-conducted demonstrations.

… before disappearing. The “mob” version of course lives on, though today’s mobs needn’t move much more than thumbs across screens.

The subject of our next challenge is a neighbouring word which shares some DNA with “Urdu”. That name means “the language of the Court”, and the court was once a camp. And the ruler and his people could move around if needs be, so we have a similar word for people who move about. Reader, how would you clue my Wordle go-to starting word, HORDE?

Cluing competition

Thanks for your clues for CHATEAU, especially those from the outright newcomers. Welcome to the only unspoiled place on the internet. The audacity award is Wellywearer2’s, for “Did Pooh ring, ’ow you say, ze big ’ouse?”, about which the least parsed the better.

The runners-up are Montano’s nifty “Rabbit seen beside water in Paris or Versailles?” and Newlaplandes’s smart “Country house primarily, castle occasionally, to the French?”; the winner, for giving us a happy ending to the familiar tale, is “Midas finally leaving pure gold mansion”.

Kludos to Joey_Joe_Joe. Please leave entries for the current competition – as well as your non-print finds and picks from the broadsheet cryptics – in the comments.

Clue of the fortnight

The Guardian has made it to 29,000 daily puzzles since 1929, so my calculations suggest the 30,000th is due in early May 2026. The 29,000th contains a terse clue where a noun is disguised as a verb and vice versa …

10a Exploit dwarf (5)
[ double definition ]

… en route to DWARF. Bravo, Fed. And here’s the kind of thing that warms the heart:

Find a collection of explainers, interviews and other helpful bits and bobs at alanconnor.com. The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book by Alan Connor, which is partly but not predominantly cryptic, can be ordered from the Guardian Bookshop