In my old Dilbert job I used to spend many a lunchtime trying to solve the daily cryptic crossword. I didn't always succeed but when I did it was immensely satisfying. It would undoubtedly be my biggest achievement of the day and I'm not kidding. Now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I thought I'd try my hand at making a cryptic crossword. I try to include at least some element of originality in my puzzles; after many hours racking my brains trying to find a way of making a vaguely original cryptic crossword it eventually came to me. I know, I'll make it BIG! None of this 13x13 or 15x15 stuff, bring on the 37x37! This is what the grid looks like:

It might not be Ximenean (now wouldn't that be a neat word to put in a cryptic crossword) and I'm sure the layout breaks every golden rule of good gridmanship, but I'd like to think that its size makes up for all of that. And while most crosswords contain across and down clues in similar proportions, the Colossus gives you get 33% more down clues absolutely free! If you'd like to solve it, please click here to print the puzzle (it's a three-page PDF document).

If you're a cryptic connoisseur, or even if you're not, I'd really like to hear what you think of the Colossus. You can email me at chris at plutopuzzles dot com.