Digest – June 2026

Doctor’s Notes

As a non-partisan organisation, the Clue Clinic would not typically comment on political events, but the resignation of Keir Starmer as UK Prime Minister this month has left the Clinic’s team wondering how cryptic crossword setters might fare without him. Starmer (or “broken armrest”, if you will) was a veritable gift to cruciverbalists, providing flexible fodder for a wide range of clues during his time as Labour’s leader. Just a day before he announced his attention to step down, he featured in a Gemelo clue: 

Starmer worked with left wing, in conflict with members (12, 2 words)

We’ll have to wait until July to find out who’ll be replacing Sir Keir, but we suspect that the exclamation “Unhand my bra!” may soon be emanating – cruciverbally, of course – from No. 10… 

UK politics aside, the Clinic continues to go from strength to strength – last month the homepage received well in excess of 5,000 visits. It’s wonderful to see so much interaction across the site and from a real spread of visitors, from hardened solvers’ comments on the regular Observer puzzles to questions from first-time setters on the Ask the Doctor page. June saw visitors asking Dr Clue for advice on various aspects of clue-writing, including the placement of indicators, full vs partial homophones, and transitive vs intransitive verbs. Please keep your questions coming!

Clinical Observations

Four Observer puzzles to challenge our little grey cells this month:

• Azed 2,780: Plain, 1.5/5 difficulty. We started with old liquor at 1A and finished with sweet wine at 28D, having consumed mulled wine, Merlot and Scotch along the way! A questionable plural prompted discussion of the Chambers app’s handling of uncountable nouns (for those still clear-headed enough to engage).
• Gemelo 37: Plain, 3.6/5. A more sober affair, with just one London Pride in 4D, but entertaining nonetheless, as Shakespeare and Austen rubbed shoulders with Eric Bana and a couple of Marvel villains.
• Gemelo 38: Plain, 2.7/5. Around the world in 36 clues, with visits to Spain and Swaziland, Bannockburn and Belgium. Dr Clue considered whether “almost” is acceptable to indicate the first letter of a two-letter word – perhaps a question for a future poll…
• Gemelo 39: Plain. Early votes suggest this was at the easier end of the spectrum. If you haven’t cast your vote yet, let us know how difficult you found it. 

Clinic Refurbishment Project

The Clinical Data section of the site is very popular with setters and solvers alike, and we’re keen to make our tables of indicators presented here as user-friendly as possible. With that in mind, the first swathe of our planned enhancements was implemented this month. And perhaps the most significant of these is the addition of filters.

Previously, tables could be sorted by one of the column headings – for example, “drag and drop” indicators could be sorted by their clue type (across, down, or either) or by their effect (first letter to end, last letter to start, and so on), but not by both simultaneously. Thanks to Dr Clue, you can now apply drop-down filters to find what you’re looking for much more quickly and easily. Further details on the Clinical Data table enhancements here. 

If you find these new filters helpful – or have other suggestions for enhancing the Clinical Data tables – we’d love to hear from you.

Poll of the Month

Results of May Poll

The question related to the enumeration of multi-word and hyphenated answers in barred puzzles. Although 56% of responders supported change, either to ‘(a, n words)’/'(a, hyphen’) [36%] or ‘(a,b)’/'(a-b)’ [20%], a substantial minority voted for the preservation of the status quo. Despite the outcome being inconclusive, it’s something that we may take up with the editors of the major barred puzzles at some future point.

June Poll

It is not uncommon to see words in a clue given an initial capital letter which is not required in the cryptic reading, while occasionally a word which requires a capital in the cryptic reading is not given one. Some examples would be:

A. A word which is not a noun in the cryptic reading is given a false capital letter, eg “Stick with it in Nice” for POLITE [POLE with IT in].
B. A word which is a common noun in the cryptic reading is given a false capital letter such that it appears to be a proper noun, eg “Left in street, perplexed Sturgeon” for STERLET [L in STREET*].
C. A word which requires a capital in the cryptic reading does not have one, eg “Scour inside broad part of bath” for WIDCOMBE [COMB in WIDE].