90 | New Scientist | 21/28 December 2019
The back pages Puzzles
Cryptic #21 – the celestial crossword Set by Sparticle
RADIAL (towards the centre)
1 Age certainly leads to oblivion (7)
2 Display relish container after
I entered into transaction (8)
3 Locks out the queen’s
assassin (6)
4 Procure army to acquire
Australia, for example (8)
5 Otherwise, it is in Chelsea? (4)
6 Get out of French bay (6)
7 Foreign poem in old notes (8)
8 Illinois rotarian goes out to
reveal twisting motion (7)24 Terribly thirsty? Help yourself (3,4)
25 Characters like C-3PO? (7)
26 Confused stray faun (5)
27 A country with carbon
capture insight (6)
28 Glad it panned out without gravity
affecting water level (5)
29 Removed cover letter
concerning mouse wee (5)
31 Double contraction doctor originally
dealt with very elegantly (6)
32 One mixture an assistant takesfor sleep disorder (6)
33 Noble in sad UK exile (4)
35 Colour strand (6)
39 Once you heard break-in
at the intended time (2,3)
40 Spouts joke with a twist in its tail (4)
42 Types of family members on
Nintendo console (5)
44 A revolutionary yearning (4)
45 State my hollow innuendo (4)
50 Having three core doctrines (3)10 Evenly groomed eggs (3)
11 I’m part criminal. It is
a ticklish area (6)
12 Hawaiian island sounds a
bit like communist China (4)
13 Refined male fish (7)
15 Mother-of-pearl cultivation
in Northern area (5)
16 No new regional moral
principles (5)
20 Artificial hybrid shocks purist
almost completely (5)Welcome to our festive
cryptic crossword!
First solve the puzzle – and
don’t worry, it works just
like a regular one. Then
create a syzygy (you
may need scissors).
Now find the work
of genius written
across the circle.