A 100 x 100 cryptic crossword written to mark the milestone in the Cracking The Cryptic discord server on reaching 10,000 puzzles in the archive. This is one of two puzzles that I created for this pack. The other one is a bit smaller.
The only online interface I have found that supports a puzzle this large is squares.io.
To solve the puzzle use this link.
Alternatively if you have your own solving software you can download an .ipuz file here.
If you prefer to solve on paper there is a PDF available - Huge thanks to KnittyDragon for the work on formatting this to be suitable for printing.
Corrections
As you can imagine, this puzzle took a fair amount of time to create, and I was not sure if it was going to be completed in time. In the end I did manage to create clues for the whole grid. Unfortunately the checking and test-solving was done in a bit of a rush and some errors were not spotted before publication. Most of these have all been fixed in the latest version (there a still a few clues missing their enumerations - 307A (7), 380A (4), 878A (4), 883 (5), 894A (5), 1144A (4), 244D (5), 490D (6), 612D (5), 1180D(4)). There are a some clues that I am not entirely happy with, and that normally I would have spent more time on, but hopefully they should be solvable. If you spot anything badly wrong please let me know.
If you already started solving with the unedited version, there is a summary below of the changes. Unfortunately if you use the new link above any answers you've already entered won't be there. You can still access the original version here.
- 8 clues had errors and did not really work. These have been re-worked: 63A 578A 941A 156D 535D 865D 922D 1140D
- 12 clues had minor errors or were improved slightly. 390A 682A 955A 1098A 1153A 251D 314D 322D 418D 610D 777D 1106D
- 3 clues had incorrect enumerations 384A (2-2) 517A (3-3) 1178A (2-7)
- 7 of the &lit clues did not have ! at the end:
Answers & explanations
A list of all the answers, with explanations, can be found here.Stats
Grid size: 100x100Total clues: 1344
Across clues: 680
Down clues: 664
Least used letter: J (13)
Most used letter: E (780)
Clues using an anagram: 169 (13%)
Clues using a reversal: 137 (10%)
Clues using a replacement/substitution: 29 (2%)
Hidden word clues: 85 (6%)
Clues using containment/insertion: 189 (14%)
Clues using deletion: 160 (12%)
Clues using a homophone/sounds like: 34 (3%)
Spoonerisms: 4
Clues with multiple definitions and no wordplay: 83 (6%)
Other clues with no wordplay (cryptic definition only): 16 (1%)
&lit clues (whole clue is both wordplay & definition): 39 (3%)
Backwards (aka Revenge / reverse engineered) clues: 1
Clues selecting initial letter(s): 246 (18%)
Clues selecting middle letter(s): 52 (4%)
Clues selecting last letter(s): 90 (7%)
