Clues and Grid by Shark
Theme: Angela Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022)
Winner: Stephen Baines
Review of the October 2025 3D crossword
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, following the appearance of Jaws in June, along comes another Shark, and, as we shall see later, this one has some very sharp teeth indeed. Shark is a prolific setter and has contributed crosswords to the Listener and other publications for more than twelve years. Unusually this month, he is responsible for both the construction of the grid and the creation of the clues and, again, we shall discover why in due course.
The theme of the puzzle is celebrating the centenary of the birth of a “lady”, whose father, we soon learn, was involved in POLITICS. A quick reference to Google and we can see that Margaret Thatcher was born in October 1925, and, sure enough, other thematic clues inform us she was born in ENGLAND and her “long run ended in the NINETIES”. Although these hints are somewhat vague, the unclued 7 across, cross checking with (-H-TCH-R) would appear to confirm this and Margaret appears in the clue for MEGAN at Day 14, so we are off and running.
Cruising through the high quality clues and filling the grid served generally to confirm the theme. Shark is a master of brevity, variety, fairness and originality. Cryptic elements of many of his clues bring a smile to the lips: “one royal” for US; “Square is all square” for NINE TIES; “boxer swinging both ways” for ALI BI; “formerly rad” for REM. In a relatively short time, therefore, the grid was completed and all that remained was to discover “what she wrote”.
And then came the grinding halt. Margaret Thatcher’s bibliography does not include anything of six letters and trying to find a “contiguous string of six cells in one layer” proved fruitless. I was consumed with the idea that “the lady’s not for turning” had to be involved somehow. We are told that “solvers should also take note of 9to and 20aw”, ie THEME and TITLE. I was well and truly stumped, and remained so for weeks.
Eventually, I was indebted to the colleagues who provide the monthly Hints and Tips feature, since, for the first time that I can remember, I needed their help to solve this conundrum. They led me to review the clues at 8: LUMPS not HUMPS and LARRY not HARRY, which sent me back to Google and the revelation that the theme was not Margaret Thatcher at all, but Dame Angela Lansbury, who played the character Jessica FLETCHER in 264 episodes of Murder, She Wrote. As the Americans might say, dang, that is clever.
Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the clues, and not the solutions, at 9to and 20aw: “Subject matter’s primarily tricky having encountered misleading entries!” and “Let it turn into Dame or Baroness?” respectively. Perhaps I should have questioned the exclamation mark in the additional clue at 10: “Barrier is to include right grid!” The fact remains I did not, and I bear Shark no ill will! On the contrary, I recognise this is a brilliant puzzle and my admiration extends not only to the setter (and grid constructor) but also to all those solvers who cracked the puzzle without any help. Thank you, Shark.
KM
Grid solution
Visual clue
This clues consists of orthographic wordplay. The logo for the Scottish National Party sits beside a map of North Dakota. Taking their lowercase abbreviations and rotating them 180° gives:
snp nd rotated 180° = pudus/PUDUS
Background image
The backdrop to this month’s puzzle of a small church opposite an intersection marked with arrows pointing left and right is ‘St Paul’s Arrowtown. Don’t turn away‘ by Bernard Spragg (public domain). Many solvers did turn away and had to turn back!
Clues and explanations
Thematic solutions are indicated with an asterisk.
| Day | Solution | Clue | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ALIBI | 13aw Defence from boxer swinging both ways? (5) | Defence. (Muhammad) ALI + BI(sexual) |
| 2 | A-LIST | 25up Celebrities regularly in tabloids etc. (1-4) | Celebrities. Even letters (regularly) of tAbLoIdS eTc |
| 3 | ANNUL | 25to Retrograde moon orbiting finally in reverse (5) | Retrograde. (i)N in (LUNA)< |
| 4 | APART | 5d Old man cracks trick piecemeal (5) | piecemeal. PA in ART (trick) |
| 5 | CHEESE | 10ac-2,11d It’s excellent quality in Derby? (6) | Double/cryptic definition. As in big cheese and Derby cheese. |
| 6 | CHEST | 21aw No need to copy most paltry casket (5) | casket. CHE(ape)ST |
| 7 | CRESS | 21up Some acres scrapped this salad plant (5) | salad plant. Hidden in aCRES Scrapped |
| 8 | 2d Message me back before trouble follows (5) | Message. (ME)< + AIL | |
| 9 | ENGLAND* | 15ba Space over the moon to house nuclear region (7) | region. N(uclear) in EN (space) + GLAD (over the moon) |
| 10 | GRATE | 14aw Barrier is to include right grid! (5) | grid. R in GATE |
| 11 | LARRY | 8d Man finds edge of lush area … runs next to railway (5) | Man. L(ush) + A(rea) + R(uns) + RY (railway) |
| 12 | LUMPS | 8to Hospital trusts finally accepting whistle-blower’s hunches (5) | hunches. UMP(ire) in (hospita)L (trust)S |
| 13 | MAENADS | 4ac Dames (before classically) raving mad? (7) | &lit. (DAMES AN(te))* |
| 14 | MEGAN | 4d Margaret perhaps interrupts servant (5) | Margaret. EG in MAN |
| 15 | NINETIES* | 22ac,24aw-2 Times Square is all square (8) | Times. NINE (32) + TIES (is all square) |
| 16 | NOISE | 23up Flair surrounding the face of Ivanisevic’s racket (5) | racket. I(vanisevic) in NOSE (flair, as in has a flair/nose for …) |
| 17 | PENNY | 19aw US prison finds state copper (5) | copper. PEN(itentiary) + NY (New York) |
| 18 | POLITICS* | 19ac Diplomacy cutting impudence in hot topics (8) | Diplomacy. LI(p) IN (TOPICS)* |
| 19 | PREMIER | 18ba Support to embrace formerly rad PM (7) | PM. REM in PIER (support) |
| 20 | PUDUS | 19up One royal tracking sweet deer (5) | deer. PUD + US (royal speak for ‘one’) Pudus are South American deer |
| 21 | PULSE | 18to Completely overlooked university beating (5) | beating. (UP)> (overlooked = reverse) + LSE (London School of Economics) |
| 22 | RESTS | 12to Unable to find the top, reaches a high point and recharges the batteries (5) | recharges the batteries. (c)RESTS |
| 23 | RIGID | 17to Strict saint from Ireland (not Britain) (5) | Strict. (b)RIGID |
| 24 | SLEUTHS* | 1ac Hustles out in shadows (7) | shadows. (HUSTLES)* |
| 25 | SOLVE* | 6d Find answer to one taking on board five (5) | Find answer to. V (five) in SOLE (one) |
| 26 | TAPIR | 26up Almost video single river beast (5) | beast. TAP(e) + I + R |
| 27 | THEME* | 9to Subject matter’s primarily tricky having encountered misleading entries! (5) | Subject matter. Acrostic (primarily): Tricky Having Encountered Misleading Entries |
| 28 | THERAPY | 26ba Remedial action from people in authority limiting criminal charge (7) | Remedial action. RAP (criminal charge) in THEY |
| 29 | TIGHT | 3d Close game with high tension (5) | Close. TIG (children’s game) + HT |
| 30 | TITLE* | 20aw Let it turn into Dame or Baroness? (5) | Dame or Baroness? (LET IT)* |
| 31 | TRASH | 3aw Outbreak connected to Thailand is nonsense (5) | nonsense. T(hailand) + RASH |
| Easter egg | FLETCHER* | 7ac (8) | Jessica Fletcher, Lansbury’s character in Murder, She Wrote |
| Easter egg | LEADING* | 16ba (7) | |
| Easter egg | MURDER | What she wrote (6) | TV series starring Angela Lansbury |
Solvers’ comments
I fell into the Harry/Humps/Thatcher trap and was thoroughly confused until I looked for another leading lady born in the same month. Very sneaky! [NI]
A fairly quick rattle through this month, though I’ve never seen the show. The pictorial clue was a nice help for a change. 13 looks dangerously like an indirect anagram. 21 puzzling. [MJ]
Great puzzle, impressively compact design. Fell right into the trap and was only rescued by the hint. Hat tip, Thanks. [JT]
Some tricky clues as always. Keep the brain working 🙂 [RE]
This was a gentle 6d, perhaps in homage to the theme, which was mostly unobtrusive. [DR]
Fiendish! And totally brilliant. I needed the hints and tips to alert me that of course I’d picked the wrong woman! So clever how the clues could lead to 2 different answers. Hopefully all correct now. [SB]
Loved it [LA]
Some fun clues in this tribute to Angela Lansbury. I am still not sure about a couple of my answers especially the “deer” one at Day 20, but hopefully I’ve managed a successful solve! Thanks to Shark for this October challenge. [JA]
I really enjoyed this puzzle. Murder She Wrote was a big favourite of mine back in the day. Many thanks to Shark. [RS]
Many thanks to the hints and tips team for solving the conundrum of what she wrote. Having spent many hours researching the Iron Lady’s biographies it all became so obvious. Funnily enough our first thought was murder but we couldn’t make a connection. [HK]
Very good [RL]
I’m another victim of the Elephant. [KD]
A lovely puzzle thanks to Shark, absolutely full of theme words a joy to solve. I had the wrong lady so could find what she wrote. A lovely plot twist. Chapeau. [GW]
It took me a long time to decipher the theme of this challenge, but it did eventually fall into place! Angela certainly did have a long run!! [SF]
Didn’t get the theme of this puzzle until well into the solving process and was slow to realise the importance of the wording “what she wrote” to get an Easter Egg but appreciated the straightforward grid with relatively few layers! [JB]
How devilishly tricky. [RP]
Excellent puzzle. The theme became apparent fairly quickly from the picture and the preamble, but the clues were nicely challenging. [JP]
Merci Shark – as sharp as ever. Regular solvers may remember this earlier homage:- Nice one Sharky, Nice one son, Nice one Sharky, Let’s have another one. [GS]
Well, well, well I had the wrong lady until hints and tips sent me sleuthing again. [MM]
Excellent – I fell into the trap perfectly! [RG]
HInts and Tips came to the rescue as although I had ‘solved’ all the clues, I was in the Thatcher, Harry and humps club! Even though ‘Murder’ was to me what should be the answer to the question, having watched many episodes of Murder, She Wrote over the years, I too had fallen into the elephant trap and couldn’t get out by myself! I then finally worked out how to find ‘murder’ in the grid. Quite a work-out, so clever and so well constucted. [SB]
Another elephant with 4 feet here. Nearly gave up on not seeing what she wrote but hints and tips arrived just in time. Thanks for the trickery! [HH]
Brilliant conception and execution, I was floundering in the elephant trap until Hints & Tips came to the rescue. Even though I was a bit suspicious of HUMPS I don’t think I would ever have had the idea of looking for another answer there. Spent ages trying to find a connection between Mrs T and Athena (even though I knew that that answer would not ‘intersect with a clued thematic entry’). [EF]
Argh! Went right down Shark’s well-laid trap, damnit, but got there in the end. [RS]
Misdirected as planned. Humbled by re-reading the clues with our eyes opened by the hints and tips. [J&JH]
A fiendishly clever puzzle and misdirection! I too quickly fell into the THATCHER trap, and was completely and utterly stumped by failing to find, acrostic style, ‘what she wrote’ (speech? memoir??). This was compounded by the extremely unfortunate coincidence that I happen to share the same birthday as her (!), and my sustained annoyance at having to keep thinking about her and what she did until the puzzle was solved…. then the penny dropped thanks to the Hints and Tips. Annoyance was replaced with elation as THATCHER was replaced with FLETCHER, HUMPS with LUMPS, etc. and my mind was filled with thoughts of the wonderful Angela Lansbury instead! Thank you (ultimately) Shark. One needed to be a sleuth indeed to solve this one. [MS]
I fell straight into the “enormous elephant trap” (as the brilliant Hints & Tips team so beautifully described it), and have spent nearly 3 weeks trying to figure out why the heck Margaret Thatcher would have written an Employment Insurance (EI) Bill?!?! For what it’s worth, EI is a common abbreviation in Canada 🙈 Bravissimo to Shark for the fantastic grid & clueing alike! The Frank Paul drawing is an absolute gem as well… definitely my favourite of the year!! 🤩 [MS]
Lovely puzzle [MD]
Quite a tough one until the penny dropped!! Even then there was some ambiguity and the misleading clue to “what she wrote” left me baffled for a while… It was tempting to conjure up the ghost of Ernie Wise and the “play what I wrote” 🙂 [SB]
Very clever and very misleading! Completely fell for the alternate solution but very pleased to find it was an intentional misdirection. Thank you Shark. [BS]
Very neat! [TH]
This was the most fiendish, brilliantly-conceived and executed cryptic I have done in a long while and perhaps ever. How on earth…? TOTALLY clueless, I was going with the “obvious” (and incorrect) answer, and could not for the life of me figure out where I was going wrong. Thank heavens for the tips and tricks this month. Hats off, Shark!!! [JS]
Good puzzle – taxed the old brain at times [JM]
Very clever, and fun to do. Although I had ‘LARRY’ to begin with, didn’t get ‘LUMPS’ and so was scratching my head until the Hints and Tips came out. Thanks to all. [JC]
Great show and great puzzle. [AR]
What she wrote suggested the theme straight away, but some tricky clues. I still haven’t parsed the picture clue. [JC]
Devilish – very clever, hats off! [JG]
Brilliant twist! Had Thatcher nailed on! [AG]
Nice misdirection that had me foxed for ages! [MH]
Just one issue. ‘This puzzle celebrates …’. One does not celebrate her centenary. One might note it, at best. [PA]