Pencils at Lunch — Daily puzzle for 2026-10-27

Easy — logic-grid deduction puzzle

A pencilled lunch note naming Winifred, Xavier, Yolanda and Zachary turned up tucked inside an unfinished crossword.

In 1994, a hotel held a quiet lunch for crossword setters. Winifred, Xavier, Yolanda and Zachary sat in a row down one side of a long table. Each place had a little card with a number on it, from one to four. The first seat, with card one, was nearest the head of the table, and the fourth seat, with card four, was farthest away. Each setter picked one dish from the menu and ordered a different kind of puzzle to solve on the train home. Between courses they argued over clues and scribbled fixes all over the menu. Years later, the seating note and the order slips turned up in different places, and the lunch had to be pieced back together.

Clues

1. One of Winifred and Xavier took the first seat, and the other took the second seat.
2. Winifred sat nearer the head of the table than Xavier did.
3. The numbers on the seat cards of the setters who ordered the cryptic and prize puzzles added up to five.
4. Whoever sat in the first seat ordered the cryptic puzzle.
5. The cryptic and quick puzzles were ordered by two setters sitting side by side.
6. Yolanda didn't order the prize puzzle.
7. The setter who ate the pie also ordered the quick puzzle.
8. The setter who ate the trout sat one seat farther from the head of the table than the one who ordered the quick puzzle.
9. Whoever ordered the prize puzzle did not have the soup.

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