Spectacular

My favourite crossword compiler, Araucaria, recently composed a puzzle around Horatio Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar.  To be completed on Trafalgar Day (October 21st), the answers included lots of words linked to the theme (Nelson, Hardy and so forth).

In fact, he went further, and one clue only works on Trafalgar Day, 2010 - as the answer refers to the fact that the previous day was 20/10/2010 (see also earlier), and thus could only work on this particular Trafalgar Day, ever, in the whole history of mankind.  While another clue builds on that to give the previous day as 'Tuesday' - hence a further clue that only works on that specific day.

All of this was signalled by the title of the crossword 'A puzzle for today'.

And so of course on Thursday, October 21st, 2010, Trafalgar Day, the Guardian botched the whole thing and printed the wrong crossword. 

We were served up one by Bonxie which I recognised from a couple of weeks earlier - 8th October according to Fifteensquared.  I hadn't done that well with it, but it was instantly recognisable because of the unusually-interlinked Across clues. 

A quite spectacular mistake (if admittedly not that important in the greater scheme of things).

It's a pity, because the crossword that should have been printed is really quite wonderful - spectacular even, and well worth a go.  You can find it at http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/25147 (not, I think, the link given in a short apology the paper published the next day), and the full solution with comments is as usual available on Fifteensquared.