sawyl | An import crossword milestone

More a dabbler than a true cryptic crossword aficionado, I decided that I couldn't let the 25,000th Guardian crossword pass without at least trying to solve it. Rather to my surprise, I was able to manage about 80 per cent of it before I got hopelessly stuck. Which, I think, means that I've beaten my (extremely poor) personal best.

I particularly liked the prevalence of cruciverbal clues — references to the grids, squares, Araucaria and even Inspector Morse. I particularly liked "Darn this thing! (9)". Answer? Crossword, of course...