SCMP Cryptic Crossword

The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's English-language daily, runs four puzzles on SCMP Games, and the cryptic is the one it pitches at experienced solvers seeking a serious mental workout. The casual solver's option is the PostMag Quick Crossword; Mini Sudoku and a word-making game called Word Search complete the set.

Each puzzle is a 15x15 grid in the British style, with about thirty clues. Every clue hides its answer twice, once as a definition and once in wordplay such as anagrams, hidden words, charades and homophones, and the enumeration in brackets gives the answer's length: The fellow grew older but coped (7) is MAN plus AGED, MANAGED. Clues are listed Across and Down beside the grid, and the current clue sits in a bar above it, with arrows to step to the next one.

A new grid is posted Monday to Saturday, each under its date, and there is none on Sundays. A timer runs while you solve and can be paused, Check/Reveal helps when you are stuck, and Save keeps your progress. Today's puzzle plays in the browser with no sign-in; the archive of earlier days, kept by month, is locked, since the paper gives full access to SCMP Games in its app or with a subscription. The page carries the paper's ad banners.

On a phone the grid fills the screen, with the current clue in a bar above it and the clue list a tap away. It suits solvers who already enjoy the cryptics in British and Australian papers and want one from Asia.