Just sayin’ – I’ve noticed in the past week that our favourite crosswords (The Times, The Guardian and The Observer) have had a smattering of clues that lead to the same solution. To be exact – the word ‘smattering’. It’s been (I think) in three crosswords recently, the latest being in The Times today (#29315).

Or for another example – 30th August 2025 when Present Day was a solution in both Times and Guardian crosswords, with similarly constructed clues.

Or… both in the Times (the first of them the Sunday Times) on 7th and 8th September 2025, the word ‘Advent’. Slightly different wordplay, but both defined as ‘prior to Christmas’.

I can’t find other examples at the moment (for a start, we’ve been away – so some of the solves have been on-screen) but I remember noticing the first two in a cluster, and almost saying so out loud. However, since the rest of the family have no interest, I kept quiet.

So, yes, there are coincidences and similarities between clues that are created . We don’t copy clues, or solutions.

1/10/25 – had just listed the solutions to ‘post’ (surprised I hadn’t done it before!) when I did Times 25ac.

10/10/25 – I wrote the clues to 11/10 (= ‘contain’ theme) on 8/10 (getting ahead for once) but didn’t finish the Times of 09/10 (9ac = ‘contain’) until 11/10

21/10/25 Times has essene (effectively essence without ‘c’); Guardian has essence (essene with a ‘c’). Both used ‘ascetic’ in the clue as essene (albeit that Times added ‘Jewish’ ascetic)

8/11/25 I had written the clue for 9/11/25 before I saw ‘hew’ as cut (down) in The Times 26ac

NYT Connections – 12th Nov 25 – has crossword as its theme. Across, down, grid, clues, grid, numbers were all in the Connections, all of which we’d used in ‘crossword’ on 10th October 2025

3/3/26 Yes, today’s theme was also in Guardian on Feb 27th, and that’s where I got the idea. However, clues were very different

10/5/26 Sunday Times 8dn I solved an hour after deciding that ‘treasure’ would be 12/5/26’s theme

25/7/26 Paul’s grit solution – I’d written a grit (steel theme) clue before that, because I was getting ahead. In fact, now I look at it, my steel clues were 21/7/26 and I went the John Wayne route.

2/8/26 Sunday Times 13Ac = ‘treason’ with almost the same clue as Times on the day before

Late July/first half of August 2026 I was getting ahead in order to go on holiday and not have to write clues. Noting here, as I solve them in Guardian/Times. 2/8/26 Times Sunday – choppers as ‘teeth’;

Likewise, on 10/8/26 I wrote the clues for 29/8, but on that day we went out (walked up Sugar Loaf, then dinner at son’s) so didn’t get chance to do the Guardian of that day. Did it first thing on 11/8, where I saw that 1ac was ‘ragged’, using ‘tease(d)’ as defn. Unusual defn, but had found it in dictionary on 10/8 and kinda knew it