PUZZLES

Crossword and sudoku brain-teasers.

ACROSS

11 Artist known as the “Curtain Master” (6)

12 A swarm of honeybees in search of a new colony (5) 13 Birth flower for March, thought to be one of the first of its species to have been cultivated (8)

14 Any one of the corvids or “hoodies” whose relative includes the jay (4)

15 Type of stove for which Mary Berry has devised numerous recipes (3)

16 Unit of mass based on the weight of a rock that was standardised by Edward III as 14 lbs (5)

17 Frame with a plain pane or a panel of stained glass (6)

18 Vitamin-rich foods grown by pomologists (6)

20 England’s first Poet Laureate (6)

22 Meaning bottle or flask in Italian, word for a failure or debacle (6)

25 Style of handwriting; or, another word for a screenplay (6)

27 Herb in the parsley family with crescent-shaped seedlike fruits used in cooking “marchpanes” (7)

29 Any of Chopin’s technical solo studies for piano whose nicknames include Ocean (5)

31 Item in various guises used for a tent, or a washing line (3)

32 Door in a pigeon loft (4) 33 Greek Muse of history (4)

34 Black Narcissus, author

(6)

36 Prelate who was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1486 (6)

38 Sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts (4)

39 Philosophy, painter (4) 40 General word for a vast expanse of saline water (3) 42 An overhead stroke in tennis (5)

44 Type of clergy house in an ecclesiastical parish (7) 45 Small part of a painting studied separately, such as the tiny Cupid in Vermeer’s

The Milkmaid (6)

46 River flowing 1,770 miles from the Black Forest to the Black Sea (6)

47 Commander of England’s fleet against the Spanish Armada (6)

50 Spelk of pounded ash wood used in basketry (6) 52 Physician to James I and later Charles I who was the first to correctly describe the blood’s circulation (6)

54 Description of a person travelling by horse, bike or motorcycle (5)

56 The cab of a lift (3)

57 St —; Cornish seaside town which is home to the Leach Pottery (4)

59 Architect who designed Longleat House (8)

60 Size of writing paper, smaller than princess (5)

61 Hypothesis such as Big Bang, standard model or singularity (6)

DOWN

1 Festival such as that traditionally held in Widecombe in the Moor, Devon (4)

2 Skill of messaging in the clouds with an aeroplane’s smoke trails (10)

3 One of the major histories of the Roman Empire written by Tacitus (6)

4 King for 10 months and 21 days, before his abdication in 1936 (6)

5 Stalks of celery; or, veins of leaves (4)

6 Touch of a paintbrush; or, a sound of a ticking clock (6)

7 UK’s only venomous snake (5)

8 A neutral colour with similar shades including cream and vanilla (3-5)

9 Settlement smaller than a city but bigger than a village or hamlet (4)

10 Meaning “the thing to wear”, Japanese robe (6)

19 Puddles of trapped sea water forming mini ecosystems or habitats for limpets, periwinkles, starfish and other marine life (4,5) 21 Imaginative or incredible story spun by a sailor (4)

23 The deep dive of a whale (5)

24 Science of fermentation applied when making kefir, sourdough and kimchi (8) 26 Word for a giant Greek god from which a protein derived its name (5)

27 French village in the Loire Valley, site of a 440room Renaissance château with a staircase designed by Leonardo da Vinci (8)

28 Structure often forming the boundary of a kitchen garden (4)

30 Ballet dancer’s ability to jump high with the appearance of apparent suspension (9)

34 Chain for a pocket watch (5)

35 Word describing the shape of a flattened circular mass of stars, gases and dust in a spiral galaxy (4)

37 Line of gunpowder or railway carriages (5)

40 Celestial bodies such as moons (10)

41 Terra —; expedition to Antarctica led by Robert Falcon Scott (4)

43 Pursuer of a pastime, eg. collecting or craft (8)

46 Universal truth and one of the “three jewels” in Buddhism (6)

48 General word for societies of friars or nuns (6) 49 Frame used in papermaking (6)

50 Small fishes in the herring family (6)

51 Dickey for a shirt; or, seaside promenade (5)

53 First name of the author who created her garden at Sissinghurst (4)

55 Fishes in a class with skates and sharks that swim in a school known as a fever (4)

58 Ireland’s Gaelic name (4)

Solutions will be given next week. The last date for entries is May 4. The winner of this crossword will be announced on May 14. The winner of the April 16 crossword is Namrata Mouria