Clues by Curmudgeon and Grid by Chalicea
Theme: Winnie-the-Pooh, first published 14 October 1926
Winner: Dan Rogan
Review of the October 2026 3D crossword
Regular solvers of the 3D crosswords and readers of these reviews will know that Curmudgeon and Chalicea are in fact the same person, so we are grateful to her/them this month for both the grid and the clues. Curmudgeon is a highly experienced and prolific setter of advanced cryptics, who, like this reviewer, is a retired language teacher.
In a Guardian interview a decade ago, when asked what, in her view, made a successful clue, Curmudgeon said: “Clever and amusing construction coupled with a fine surface reading that may be deceptive. A good clue is short and sweet.” When asked what, on the other hand, made an unsuccessful clue, she said: “Lots of cluelets each providing some letters of the solution and building up to an overlong humdrum whole.” Hear, hear to that.
By her own standard, therefore, the clueing in this puzzle can only be judged as highly successful: brevity and concision are Chalicea’s watchwords and the average length of the 37 clues in this puzzle is six words. Even though half a dozen of those clues lack a definition, that is very impressive. My favourite clues were the lovely anagram for CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (’Miserable British corner shop lacking goods ultimately’); the double definition for RABBIT (‘Confound last man in, maybe’), the excellent surface reading for CADGE (‘scrounge a bit of dinner in prison’), ‘headless chicken’ for OWL, as well as the clues for EARLY, SPOOR, OWNER, PIGLET, KYTHERA and many more besides.
This is the second literary-themed offering in succession from the same ‘team’: readers may well remember ‘their’ April 2025 prize on the Great Gatsby. A feature of both puzzles is the good number of unclued thematic elements that are skilfully woven into the grid, with very few snakes. There are only two of the critters here. All the main characters from Winnie the Pooh emerged without too much difficulty, especially when Christopher Robin appeared at Clue 10.
The centenary of the book’s publication has been celebrated in the media, including in the Nursery Times, a feature in Private Eye, entitled ‘Winnie the Pooh at a Hundred Years Old’, which made me smile. “I remember when there was only one house at Pooh Corner, now it’s all semi-detached houses full of heffalumps! And everyone’s playing pooh sticks online nowadays!” I am pleased to say that A A Milne’s story, read aloud from the book, can still captivate our young grandchildren, despite the competition from Power Rangers, K-Pop and Frozen.
I derived particular satisfaction this month from being able to unravel Frank Paul’s drawing for OBADIAH, which I eventually managed to parse as O + BAD + (P)I(R)A(N)H(A). O does stand for Oscar in the acronym EGOT [Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony], which makes a regular appearance in the New York Times crossword; the Michael Jackson cover is for the album “Bad”; and IAH are the even letters of the ferocious piranha. Tough but fair.
In conclusion, thanks go to Curmudgeon for her eminently sound and solvable clueing, and to Chalicea for the topical theme and the grid. The whole puzzle is particularly appropriate for October, since the calendar for 2027 is now available to purchase. Please encourage new and old subscribers to commit for next year — this enjoyable puzzle is a perfect example of what they can expect and all in a good cause.
KM
Grid solution
Visual clue
A charade in three parts — an academy award, a Michael Jackson album, and the even letters of PIRANHA — gives:
O + BAD + (p)I(r)A(n)H(a) = OBADIAH
Background image
The backdrop to this month’s puzzle is a swarm of honey bees by xiSerge (Pixabay).
Clues and explanations
Thematic solutions are indicated with an asterisk.
| Day | Solution | Clue | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ACRE | 33up Patch of ground of a native American person mostly (4) | Patch of ground. A CRE(e) |
| 2 | AMBATCH | 16ac Advanced tally including British tree (7) | tree. A MATCH around B |
| 3 | APHID | 33to Sapsucker apparently concealed (5) | Sapsucker. AP + HID |
| 4 | APTOTES | 20ac A top set revised some nouns (7) | some nouns. (A TOP SET)* |
| 5 | ASHEN | 20aw Pale-coloured, like a pullet (5) | Pale-coloured. AS + HEN |
| 6 | BERET | 17to Cap that’s felt before being squeezed by telecoms company (5) | Cap that’s felt. BT around ERE |
| 7 | CADGE | 26aw Scrounge a bit of dinner in prison (5) | Scrounge. D in CAGE |
| 8 | CHAPKAS | 26up Organised pack has military caps (7) | military caps. (PACK HAS)* |
| 9 | CHAUNCE | 9d Lost opportunity of alumni intermittently entering churches (7) | Lost opportunity. CH CE around A(l)U(m)N(i) |
| 10 | CHRISTOPHER ROBIN* | 9ac,12d-5,25ba Miserable British corner shop lacking goods ultimately (11,5) | Undefined. (BRITISH CORNER SHOP less (good)S)* |
| 11 | COWLS | 9to Monks’ habits left amidst livestock (5) | Monks’ habits. COW[L]S |
| 12 | EARLY | 27aw In good time, not quite missing starter (5) | In good time. (n)EARLY |
| 13 | EEYORE* | 31ac-6 Emptily enunciate long ago in poetic language (6) | Undefined. E(nunciat)E + YORE |
| 14 | ENTITLE | 1d Constituent of talent – it lends style (7) | style. Hidden in talENT IT LEnds |
| 15 | GREAT GO | 2d Mortgagee taking sides about test for students (5,2) | test for students. (m)ORTGAGE(e)* |
| 16 | HYENA | 19to Animal apathy enables captures (5) | Animal. Hidden in apatHY ENAbles |
| 17 | IDIOT | 23to Papers I returned to dimwit (5) | dimwit. ID I + TO< |
| 18 | INGRAIN | 6d Raining pell-mell, firmly set in (7) | firmly set in. RAINING* |
| 19 | KANGA* | 13aw Almost the heart of Balkan garden (5) | Undefined. Hidden in balKAN GArden |
| 20 | KYTHERA | 13ac Island cattle on Skye churned up earth (7) | Island. KY + EARTH* |
| 21 | NERVIER | 5d Not so calm – at no time circling river with current involved (7) | Not so calm. NEVER around R and I |
| 22 | NURAGHE | 15ac Thug unveiled anger developing round tower (7) | round tower. ((t)HU(g) ANGER)* |
| 23 | OBADIAH | 22ba Book of a Bible leader I had reprinted (7) | Book. (O A B I HAD)* |
| 24 | OP ART | 24to To party without limits – form of creativity (2,3) | form of creativity. (t)O PART(y) |
| 25 | OWL* | 8to Headless chicken? (3) | Undefined. (f)OWL |
| 26 | OWNER | 28aw One admitting sad experience after daughter’s absconded (5) | One admitting. (d)OWNER |
| 27 | PATIO | 3aw Plants I sow from time to time in courtyard (5) | courtyard. P(l)A(n)T(s)I(s)O(w) |
| 28 | PIGLET* | 3ba Suffer after torture’s brought back (6) | Undefined. GIP< + LET |
| 29 | PRAISED | 3d Despair surprisingly admired (7) | admired. DESPAIR* |
| 30 | RABBIT* | 10d Confound last man in, maybe (6) | Undefined. Double definition. [Cricket slang for an incompetent batsman] |
| 31 | RINSE | 10to Temporary colour right in itself (5) | Temporary colour. R IN SE |
| 32 | R MONTHS | 32up When oysters are in season (not May or June, for example) (1,6) | Double definition |
| 33 | ROO* | 25to Proof without limits (3) | Undefined. (p)ROO(f) |
| 34 | SPOOR | 21aw Trail run I’m sorry to go over (5) | Trail. R OOPS< |
| 35 | SWING | 11to Control singular flight (5) | Control. S WING |
| 36 | TIGGER* | 18to,14ac-2 Cause something to happen without reason at first (6) | Undefined. TRIGGER less R(eason) |
| 37 | WINCHED | 4d Weight moved slowly, hauled up by machine (7) | hauled up by machine. W + INCHED |
| Required | A A MILNE | Highlighted cells | The author |
Solvers’ comments
A splendid celebration of a HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY. [NI]
Loved it. … & more great words to try to remember for Scrabble 🙂 [RE]
Nice one 🙂 [DW]
Kanga gave the game away. A nice selection of unusual words. I couldn’t find “great go” in Chambers. [MJ]
A delightful romp through the Hundred Acre Wood. We got the theme immediately from the photo, which helped immensely. A nice variety of clue types with some neat surfaces. A couple of new words, always good news. There was one solution whose parsing eluded us, so looking forward to learning how RABBIT works. [CW]
A delightful puzzle replete with thematic names from an old family favourite. [AB]
Lovely theme [JN]
Caught myself humming “House at Pooh Corner” by Kenny Loggins on repeat as soon as I discovered the theme 🍯 A really enjoyable solve, and the visual clue was particularly delightful! [MS]
Good fun — thank you. [AH]
The beehive gave it away early! [RG]
Easy solve helped by an obvious theme. [AC]
Thanks for a charming trip down thematic memory lane. Surprised that Winnie-the-Pooh and Hundred Acre Wood weren’t included in the Easter Eggs section. [RS]
Honey and 3 words hyphenated gave me the theme immediately, which meant a quick hunt for the characters (alas no heffalump) and a very speedy solve, albeit with a Chambers check for ambatch and nuraghe. [DR]
Good to have an easier time after the last two. [SG]
Loved the theme – very enjoyable. [LB]
Thank you for bringing back fond memories from my childhood with this delightful puzzle! [MG]
What a charming puzzle – and so much more amenable than the very very tough challenges of recent months. How clever of Curmudgeon and Chalicea to fit so many of the names of these favourite childhood characters into the grid. Thanks to them both. [JA]
Thank you to Curmudgeon and Chalicea! I stumbled into the theme surprisingly early (with a lucky nudge from Day 1), and soon after, all but a sturdy tower had fallen too. Lots of fun 🙂 [CPP]
I guessed the theme from the photo background, which helped! Some tricky clues – never heard of AMBATCH, APTOTES, CHAPKAS, CHAUNCE, GREAT GO, KYTHERA, or NURAGHE – which is a pretty high count. But generally good fun – thanks to Curmudgeon, Chalicea and Frank Paul. [JC]
What a fun puzzle. Having so many clues without definitions made it a little tough to get a footer but once we were in it, it was as pleasant as walking through a hundred acre wood. Some twigs to trip over included new terms and misunderstood wordplay for the cutest little piglet. [M&SS]
Found this puzzle fairly easy, once I’d got the donkey at 13. Nice one👌 [MN]
An enjoyable and gentler solve after the last couple of months. Some words that were new to me, but were deducible, just needing verification by google before entering! [SB]
Great fun but the theme and the long thematic material were all very easily guessable after which it was just a question of filling in the gaps, a few of which were a bit tricky! [EF]
This was a lovely solving experience, full of nostalgia and childhood memories. Thank you! [SF]
Somewhat less complex than September, and memories of a wonderful book of my childhood and my children’s childhoods. What’s not to like? [PA]
Nice puzzle with helpful theme. Clueing clear and not too difficult. [JP]
Kanga and Roo jumped out so that meant a good start. I also always enjoy it when a totally unknown word comes out of the word play. Not all parsed as yet though. Thank you for a lovely theme. [HH]
That was a lovely nostalgic ramble through the hundred acre wood, thank you! [JT]
Very enjoyable, finding all the characters. [SB]
Some lovely clues, as expected from Chalicea; a few too many had-to-look-up-the-crossers words for my liking though! [HS]
Fun puzzle. I enjoyed the theme. [KD]
A delightful puzzle, I confess more enjoyable than the September Extra — like a gentle little stroll in Hundred Acre Wood with Winnie and friends… and came across a few new terms for me along the way, eg R MONTHS, CHAUNCE, NURAGHE [MS]
Lovely puzzle and a great theme, very enjoyable. Thanks to Curmudgeon and Chalicea [GW]
Took a while to see the theme, but then the answers flew out 😎👍 [DM]
Nice to see an old favourite as a theme [PD]
Love this theme. I started this month late so had already seen thematic crosswords in Guardian and FT. Disappointed not to see Small the beetle – one of Rabbit’s friends and relations (I assume not a relation). One of those books that my parents read to me at first, then later I read myself. A few I had to look up including great go – have never heard of that – I suppose making mathematicians (like me) write long essays about classics would be an ordeal. Thanks for this one. [JC]
Excellent [RL]
Amazing what can be made out of a simple theme. [MM]
Delightful puzzle. Thank you very much [JB]
Other than the messy easter egg (so close on being able to spell it downwards!) this thing was perfect. [AB]
lovely puzzle on a wonderful theme [MD]
To paraphrase: “Which setter is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s Chalicea/Curmudgeon,” squeaked Piglet. “My favourite setter,” said Pooh.” (;+>) [MC]
Easier than some, though there were some answers that were very tricky. Enjoyable, though! [MH]
A lovely cuddly puzzle! [AR]
Delightful puzzle with a sweet theme! Took me right back to childhood, as did the clue for Day 32 which I remember first learning from an Asterix comic (for some reason). [HJ]
How can you not love a puzzle about an icon? Thanks to Curmudgeon and Chalicea. [JS]
The hardest one yet! Entertaining and challenging, really enjoyable solve. [SH]