www.silverguide.site –

Solvers come to Brockwell puzzles expecting a theme. One of June’s prize crosswords felt a little different, though. And it was. Over to Brockwell himself for an explanation:

Where do I start? Eddie was our loyal YORKSHIRE TERRIER for 16 years. As you can see from the picture, he was an absolute SWEETIE. Eddie arrived unexpectedly one morning in June TWENTY TEN, unceremoniously dumped in our wheelie bin and it was our DUTY to ADOPT him. Sadly, we lost him earlier this year. It has been a huge WRENCH and we are feeling very FLAT and EMOTIONAL.

I wrote this puzzle to help process my grief and to celebrate our “Eddie boy”, which was his PET NAME. Eddie’s ashes are scattered in beautiful Brockwell Park, the SCENE of his WATERLOO on several occasions, when chasing squirrels up a TREE. Definitely a MISSABLE dog and I’d give my EYE TEETH to have him back. As Nina says, FAREWELL EDDIE BOY.

Farewell, Eddie, and thanks to Brockwell. And what a handsome fellow he is. (Eddie.)

In June’s Genius, Pangakupu asked you to assemble crossword cubes from sections of the filled grid. Sadly, and unlike the Listener, we do not ask for physical submissions, but one cube was made using the top right corner over the bottom left; the other with the bottom right corner over the top left; and both had the same “sandwich filling”, which you can find by looking at the last letters of 11 and 13, and the first letters of 12 and 15.

And the entry we were looking for is:

AID
BOB
COP
DEN
GAP
LEG
NIT
RAT

July’s Genius is now live.

Many thanks for your cluing-conference clues for BREADCRUMBS. A rare joint honours for the audacity award: Wellywearer2’s “.. . . . .... .. . .. . .. .” and Newlaplandes’s “Crosswords > crossword-blog > 02/06/2026 > comments > clue > wordplay > definition?”

The runners-up are Nestingmachine’s lean “Bishop dipped into my leftovers” and Etymon’s “Covering for fish reportedly spawned by Holy Mackerel” which I have imperiously de-capped; the winner is the remarkable “Clues laid out in intricate book: ABC Murders”.

Kludos to GappyTooth; please leave clues for EDDIE, below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you have spotted. The breadcrumbs were of course a reference to our 30,000th puzzle shenanigans; a couple of solvers have shared these words from a Reddit crossword group about the same topic and it would be mean not to do the same:

I’ve finally followed the rabbit-hole all the way to the bottom and … wow. Just blown away by the whole thing, to the point of tears at the final mic-drop.

It’s as if a dedicated team of clever people coordinated in secret for a year and a half to deliver something that felt like it was designed just for me (and possibly you, if you’re here). Gorgeous, beautiful work.

• Alan Connor is the Guardian’s crossword editor. His book 188 Words for Rain is published by Ebury (£16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply