Clues by Curmudgeon and Grid by Chalicea
Enter the prize draw by 30 April.
The background for this puzzle is a David Lohner photograph of a saxophone mouthpiece in front of another saxophone.
This puzzle by Curmudgeon uses a conventional 7x5x7 grid by Chalicea and celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first appearance of a classic work. The title (3,5,6) of the work is an anagram of the letters in the circled cells. The yellow cells contain unclued entries: the theme of the work (8,5) 21ac,23d-2,31to, is embodied by the title character (3,6) 8ac,10d-3, with his love of (5) 12aw, during the (4,3) 8d. Solvers should include all of these with their entries. Clues are numbered in alphabetical order of their solutions.
The clue for 2d (7) was unintentionally omitted from the calendar. If you have solved the other clues, then only one word will fit. It is included as Day 14.5 in the online entry form (since it comes between the answers for Days 14 and 15 in alphabetical order). The April Extra 2025 competition (with a separate entry page) invites solvers to supply the missing clue.
Solvers who look at this month’s Frank Paul visual clue should recognise the contemporary figures on the left, but may have a little more difficulty identifying those on the right. This is an ill-matched pair of fictional characters who appeared in a 1960’s film based on a play and in a subsequent early 1970’s sitcom (the drawing is a faithful reproduction of the film poster).
They were erudite people, Curmudgeon and Chalicea — they mashed up words and letters and then retreated back into their cunning or their vast erudition, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Day 1
Part of wing’s almost wholly united liberal answer (5)
Intriguing: This solution requires the first letters of the last three words but there is no indicator in the clue telling you to do so. A three letter word suggesting wholly and remove the last letter (indicator – almost). Thus 2+3 = (5). [GS]
Day 4
Coffee shop employee’s first to stop climbing horse (7)
Intriguing: first to stop could mean the letter S but not here. In crossword speak first becomes Ist/ist (geddit?) So ist inside a four letter word for a breed of horse (indicator – to stop). But this is a down solution so the breed of horse must read up from square 28 in the grid (indicator – climbing). The solution is a coffee shop worker. [GS]
Day 7
Bishop or saint oddly missing calls in this former custodial institution (7)
And yet more intrigue: This solution requires two abbreviations with no indicator/s to do so. So let’s start with Bishop, no abbreviation suitable for Day 7 until the game of chess rescues us, and we’re off. 1 letter + or + abbreviation for saint + the two even letters from calls (at last an indicator – oddly missing). Total 7 letters. [GS]
Day 9
For Milton, lively male deer, nearly a good deal more (7)
The commas aren’t helpful! For Milton suggests a 17th century word, but what for? You need to find a word for a male deer and add a shortened word (nearly) for more. (It might help to think of a good deal more being ‘and ….’). This gives you an archaic word for lively. [JP]
Day 21
Dubiously done by a Glasgow nonentity (7)
Suggestive of underhand dealings, but dubiously is suggesting an anagram which will give you a Glasgow word for a nonentity. [JP]
Day 22
Spots in Evian in a turmoil (5)
Turmoil suggests an anagram. The answer is a Latin plural of a word for pigmented spots or birthmarks. [NI]
Day 23
Things to be observed curiously annotated without limits of time (7)
Curiously suggests another anagram, but annotated has too many letters, so this must be a compound anagram. Without limits of time indicates that we should remove the first and last letters of time from annotated before solving the anagram. The answer is the plural of a Latin gerundive meaning something to be specially observed. [NI]
Day 27
I risk foolishly greeting Sumo wrestler (7)
Not someone you’d want to upset with a foolish greeting, but foolishly here suggests that the previous words are jumbled. Add a short word of greeting to give you a Japanese term for a Sumo wrestler. [JP]
Day 30
Sets are sorted for part of mosaic (7)
This time sorted is an anagram indicator. The answer, meaning a piece of a mosaic, comes from the Latin for a small cube. [NI]
I am grateful to the other members of the Hints & Tips team: Garry Stripling (Gin) and Jim Pennington (Philostrate).
Happy solving!
Nick Inglis (etc)
I’m intrigued in my turn! Is there not a widely accepted convention at all levels that a word for which there is a standard abbreviation in normal use can be used in a clue to point to that abbreviation, without the need for a specific ‘indicator’ that that is what is required. So saint = st, bishop = B (or RR), united = U, etc. There might have been a query about answer, which is often given as ans, but also can validly be A as in Q & A.