Guardian Cryptic 30,125
by Imogen · Wednesday 30 September 2026
Imogen’s Wednesday puzzle is full of containers, words tucked inside other words, so it’s a great one for practising that trick. 16 across has one of the loveliest surfaces of the week, and 4 down is a long Dickensian anagram worth savouring. Medium difficulty, with a couple of slippery definitions in the downs.
- 1 Across: Starch silly person dropped into sparkling wine (7)
- 5 Across: Millenarian sect, mixers of cocktails (7)
- 9 Across: Complicated relationships get Mr Big at intervals into difficulties (9)
- 10 Across: In brief, ‘Academy’ leads with a vowel (5)
- 11 Across: Clutching note, place bet (4)
- 12 Across: Woo-hoo! Born during overlong time in bed? Refuse to go there (7,3)
- 14 Across: I present The End of History, a cancelled opinion (6)
- 15 Across: One exploiting employees making garment (7)
- 16 Across: A small train diverted to Nancy? (7)
- 18 Across: Confront a constant expense (6)
- 20 Across: Depression, given cereal that scours the teeth (10)
- 21 Across: State of mind turning to horrible fate (4)
- 24 Across: Jazz work in theatre broadcaster half-heartedly takes on (5)
- 25 Across: Stark nude changing clothes kept silent (9)
- 26 Across: Came home missing river that’s changed channel (7)
- 27 Across: Police having time to replace cold headgear (7)
- 1 Down: Workers entering place for tea and slice (3,2)
- 2 Down: Seeing nothing wrong in being well-groomed (7)
- 3 Down: Face trouble, regularly stealing from balconies (4)
- 4 Down: Unearthly ordeal having to reorganise Dickens’ work (3,3,4,5)
- 5 Down: Money temporarily put aside here for thriller? (8,7)
- 6 Down: Want to save money, so giving up the booze (10)
- 7 Down: Show old horse a single piece of tack (7)
- 8 Down: Bridge pair starting with spades concealing queen (7)
- 13 Down: One writes new title and a couple of pages in the bog (4-3,3)
- 16 Down: Is about to exclude a feature of browser (7)
- 17 Down: Tiny piece of high tech not fitting round a head (7)
- 19 Down: Well up, holding firm in affliction (7)
- 22 Down: When starting masseur falsely said he had a magic touch (5)
- 23 Down: Not old, condescend to pack it in (4)