Crossword editor’s desk: April fooling is alive and well in crosswords

Cryptic crossword setters are still finding new ways to celebrate April Fools’ Day

It’s April, so it’s time to continue our tracking of the ebb and flow of April foolery in crossword puzzles. In brief, the good times continue.

I haven’t yet found any cryptics of the rule-bending variety, but, avoiding spoilers, would like to recommend the Financial Times puzzle by the setter known locally as Harpo, navigating to Independent 12,318 by the solver known locally as Enigmatist and our own Paul here at the Guardian.

QUICK START
YOUNG AT HEART
SECOND LINE
PAY UP FRONT

SUM TO FINAL

Blend cryptic wordplay with Japanese verse to form a delectable haiklu (patent pending)

he made The Third Man
once oddly go missing with
endless avarice

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