One cryptic crossword, every Thursday, by email

Nine by nine, solvable over a coffee. Setters rotate, the difficulty does not. Solutions arrive the following Tuesday.

Free. One email a week, one on Tuesday with the answers. Unsubscribe from any of them.

This week’s clues, to see if it suits you

• 1aCopper caught learning to make a comeback (6)
• 4aLost article found in a broken lantern (8)
• 5aSailor turns up holding nothing but a chart (5)
• 1dEndlessly cold river yields a fish (4)
• 3dOne hundred join the queue for a musical piece (6)
• 7dDoctor upset about the French wine (7)

How it works

A puzzle lands Thursday morning as a printable sheet and a plain-text list of clues, so it works on paper, on a phone, or read aloud. There is no app and no account.

On Tuesday you get the solution with a short note on any clue that caused trouble, written by whoever set it. That note is the part most solvers say they read first.

Who sets them

Six setters in rotation, none of them full-time at it. Each has a recognisable habit, and regular solvers work out whose puzzle it is before the first across is filled in. We consider that a feature.