I'd like to see its performance on New York Times crosswords split into decades. I suspect they've been getting dumbed down.
But still, is there a good guide to get into Cryptics?
It's mostly a variant sudoku channel but Mark Goodliffe is an insanely good cryptic crossword solver, and both Simon and Mark are good teachers.
Beyond the intro the key skills are: parsing the clues into definition and wordplay, knowing signifiers for different types of wordplay, recognising common abbreviations (there are lists a web search away), recalling short synonyms, and anagramming.
If you want to get your mind blown I highly recommend spending the $2 for Cracking the Cryptic's Patreon to watch Mark solve the Monthly Club Special using almost pure wordplay and whatever string manipulation coprocessor he has in his head (which also seems to work for sudoku too).
You might find the Telegraph easier than the Graun to start with.
Some compilers are also easier than others / will make more sense to you (I like brendan, nutmeg, vulcan, and philistine).
For anyone who doubts this, I suggest doing a few puzzles from this book of old Mondays from the 90s. This will very quickly dispel any doubt about this proposition. The puzzles in this book are Wednesday/Thursday-level and sometimes even harder.
https://www.amazon.com/New-York-Times-Favorite-Crosswords/dp...