Cryptic #25: These Cities Six

 My Twenty-Fifth Crossword

IT'S MY FIRST CROSSWORD ANNIVERSARY!

To celebrate, here's a grid I've been sitting on for a while.

Thank you, everyone, ever so much for all the solves. It means so much to me that what I've created is (hopefully) enriching others' lives. That's one thing I love about setting - aside from all the wordplay involved, you get to create something special and unique, to share with the world. Much like most forms of art.

Thanks to Jack Keynes for test-solving.

Have fun!

- GAIS, 26/09/21

P.S. I'd like to thank every setter I know for inspiring me. I'll attempt naming them all here.

Agnijo, Enterta, Liari, Angel, TeamCrazyMatt, The Void, Skirwingle, Conto, Raider, Quince, Steve Mossberg, ScottHasFun, Liam Runnalls, Michael X, Avid, David Astle, Eccles, BlueJay, Elgel, Elwood, Chameleon, Picaroon, Danny Vibes, LowDown Letterbanks, Panthera, Nordloc, Phyphor, Laguna, Somsram, JimJar, BrknFixie, ChocChip, NoFeetMcGee, Navy. The list goes on and on - I'm sure I've forgotten many.

Special mention to Mental Playground and Jack Keynes for all their support, and to the folks over at Cryptic Sunday for their kindness.

I was introduced to the art form by the legendary Picaroon, and it was Danny Vibes's stream of the DAs that really got me going. Sometimes I think about how weird it is that if our music teacher never showed us the Axis of Awesome music video, I would never have found out about Benny Davis and his crossword streams, and such a large part of my life would simply not be there. So thank you to them.

What a year it's been.