FRIDAY CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 French river depicted in Alfred Sisley’s The Terrace at Saint-Germain, Spring and Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (5)
4 Variety of squash or marrow harvested when young, used in a variety of recipes including fritters, quiches, fritattas and soups (9)
9 Fluffy seed head of a dandelion; the name of the diminutive family in Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers; or, an item made by a horologist (5) 12 Word linking with “mouse” for an old word for the flying mammal studied in chiropterology (7)
13 In the UK, a music exam on a scale from 1 to 8; or, a category given to a listed building, I, II* or II (5)
14 Situated on the north-west coast of Tahiti, the capital of French Polynesia, an archipelago that includes Tetiaroa, or Marlon Brando Island (7)
15 Another word for an ecozone; a field of study; or, a kingdom or queendom (5)
16 One of the colours of the counters used in Connect Four, pieces/tokens in Ludo, wedges in Trivial Pursuit or locations on a Monopoly board (6)
17 Monetary units of Bulgaria, 100 of which are equal to one lev (8)
19 A part of the human body treated during a manicure; or, a fastener such as a brad, sprig or tack (4)
20 Small falcons of open countryside, sometimes called windhovers (8)
22 Nobel Prize-winning English novelist who wrote Lord of the Flies and the To the Ends of the Earth trilogy (7)
25 Species of cypress with berry-like seed cones used to flavour gin (7)
26 Carried by Indiana Jones and redesigned in a modern style by the company Mulberry, a style of traditional leather school bag (7)
27 BBC documentary series based on the natural history of the UK’s shores (5)
29 Commemorated at Westminster Abbey, a Cornish engineer who developed the first steam locomotive (10)
32 Form of stitched art used to create broderie anglaise, samplers, crewelwork or simple patterns on aida cloth (10)
34 Small stem of a fresh herb such as parsley or mint; or, a decorative element applied to pottery before being fired (5)
35 Glasgow-based football clubs Celtic and Rangers collectively (3,4)
37 Prehistoric epoch that saw the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures in Europe (4,3)
39 Isle of _______; peninsula on the Jurassic Coast with landmarks including Durdle Door and Corfe Castle, said to have inspired many books by Enid Blyton (7)
41 Running at average top speeds of 70 mph, Earth’s fastest land animals (8)
42 Mountain range extending 750 miles across eight countries, site of Méribel, Mont Blanc, St Moritz and Zermatt (4)
45 Drama based on the Queen’s reign (3,5)
48 Author of Tom Brown’s School Days (6)
50 First name of the actor and director remembered for Citizen Kane and his radio dramatisation of The War of the Worlds (5)
52 The “Harbour City” on Vancouver Island in British Columbia (7)
53 Known to the Anglo-Saxons as Eosturmonath after the spring goddess Ēostre, the month when Lyrids occur (5)
54 Known as the “Raphael of flowers”, Marie Antoinette’s court artist and tutor, appointed to paint the roses and lilies of Malmaison by Josephine Bonaparte (7)
55 Strap for hurling a stone; a swathe of cloth for supporting a baby close to the body; or, a type of cocktail (5)
56 Swimming race where competitors choose which stroke they use (9)
57 Author of a series of Regency novels including Venetia and Frederica (5)
DOWN
1 Hand-picked stigmas of a species of crocus, used as a spice to flavour bouillabaisse, paella and risotto (7)
2 ________ Game; original name for Alan Turing’s test to determine the intelligence (or AI) of computers (9)
3 Creamy-yellow variety of originally Dutch potato, used as an all-rounder (6)
4 _____ powder; ready-made masala used in dishes such as coronation chicken, kedgeree and red lentil dhal (5)
5 Zoological term for hoofed animals, even-toed or odd-toed (9)
6 Swiss sculptor noted for his L’Homme au Doigt , or Pointing Man (10)
7 Organism managed in silviculture (4)
8 Abbreviation of a Latin word for a person who relocates overseas (5)
9 Generic term for the chief or administrative city of a country (7)
10 Danny _____; film character played by Frank Sinatra and George Clooney (5)
11 Two-time winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal who illustrated many of Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels for children (7)
18 Humanist scholar who wrote The Scholemaster and the treatise on archery Toxophilus (6)
21 Structure such as a hill-fort or henge (9)
22 J. K. Rowling’s pen name (9)
23 Spitting _____; television puppet satire (5) 24 ______ cleaning; action of decluttering described in the KonMari method (6)
25 Ballet jumps initiated en plié (5)
27 Centaur who taught heroes including Achilles, Ajax and Jason (6)
28 Rosemary & _____; mystery drama series with Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris (5)
30 Trial and _____; problem solving method (5) 31 Software devices for encrypting or compressing data for faster transmission during videoconferencing or streaming (6)
33 A Household Cavalry regiment (4,6)
36 Golf scoring/participation method (5,4)
38 White duck from Buckinghamshire (9) 39 Sets of rights granted to inventors (7)
40 Girl with a Pearl _______; Johannes Vermeer’s painting that inspired a novel and film (7)
43 Honey-eating animal with a crescent-shaped patch in its chest; the smallest member of the Ursidae family (3,4)
44 Elephant’s canopied saddle-seat (6)
46 Sylvia Plath’s sonnet exploring the theme of boredom in ordinary life (5)
47 Leslie Stephen’s daughter who wrote Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and A Room of One’s Own (5)
49 Action that puts a ball into play in tennis, squash or volleyball (5)
51 Underground type of chamber studied in speleology and explored in the activity spelunking (4) A sudoku grid has a 9x9 grid that is further subdivided into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve the puzzle, each of the rows, columns and 3x3 boxes should contain all the digits from 1 to 9. The solution to this puzzle will be published in next week’s issue. Solutions will be given next week. The last date for entries is April 24. The winner of this crossword will be announced on May 4. The winner of the April 6 crossword is