Hey, it’s me — Eli, your friendly neighbourhood crossword constructor. I’ve been having the best time creating Westside crosswords for you all over the past couple of years. I don’t know if you’ve noticed me slowly upping the difficulty month to month, but I have been, you’ve all been amazing at solving them, and I decided the time has come for a proper step up.
This month’s crossword has a slightly trickier ‘theme’. In crossword lingo, a theme is a linking idea that connects a handful of clues or answers — sometimes obvious, sometimes sneaky. A ‘revealer’ clue (usually, but not always, lurking in the south-east corner) spells out what ties them all together.
Up until now, our Westsider themes have been pretty straightforward, but this one asks solvers to make one extra little leap — nothing too wild, promise.
As always, if you’d like to dive deeper into the world of crossword-ese, clue conventions, and the wonderfully odd unwritten rules of the trade, you can check out my eBook.
If you get stuck click the arrow here for a small hint (but no peeking until you’ve had a go!).
Crossword spoiler: RECKLESS (the answers to the starred clues need less ‘reck’ for the solve)
