34 The Sunday Times December 19, 2021PUZZLES
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 297
12345678910111213 1415 1617 18 19 20 212223 24 2526 27 282930 3132 33 34 35 363738 39 40 4142 43 4445 46CONCISE CROSSWORD 1761
1 8 8 8 11 14 15 19 25 40WARM-UP VERY HARD — PRIZE 1462 KILLER SUDOKU HARD
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text, please provide your FULL name and address details,
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3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm)In the grid, each
number represents
a letter of the
alphabet — all 26
letters are used.
Use the initial clues
in the code table to
work out the rest of
the code.
STUCK? To get
four random extra
letter clues, call
0901 293 6266
(ROI 1514 415128) or
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0333 202 3390
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(Mon-Fri 9am-
5.30pm).CODEWORD
SUDOKU
Each row, column and 3x3 box
must contain the digits 1 to 9.
Winners will receive a Collins
English Dictionary & Thesaurus.MEPHISTO (^3199) Across
1 Maybe a Glaswegian’s
clothes items (6)
6 Form of response
included by communists
making new offers (6)
10 System of belief of those
people gathering round
second-year student (9)
11 Bleats of leader in South
Africa (4)
12 Thus small Roman
community managed with
very old ruler (6)
13 Be slow moving joints (6)
14 Bear without tail seen in
copse (4)
16 Rock event is on in new
format (9)
18 Rascal not getting married,
one to run away (5)
24 The Parisian unwell,
about to avoid that
surgical procedure (5)
27 Trained paramedic
appearing before man in
garden? (9)
28 Part of ruler’s territory at
one time (4)
29 Long to eat nut and dry
fruit (6)
30 Old brass pillar with X
on (6)
31 Poisonous plant mostly
seen in river (4)
32 This writer’s left with a
French female creating
torment (9)
33 Like crystal box rarely
empty (6)
34 Like poetry that’s
encountered, set in good
order (6)
FEEDBACK
Comments about our puzzles can be sent to
[email protected] or Puzzles
Editor, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF
Across
1 Foot curve (4)
4 Blade serration (8)
8 Slander (12)
9 Relaxed (8)
11 Devious (4)
12 Dangerously old ship (6)
14 Male escort (6)
16 Enthuse (4)
17 Perhaps (8)
19 Lack of bias (12)
21 Discretionary (8)
22 Vitellus (4)
Down
12 3 45 67
8
91011
12 13 14 15
16 17 18
19 20
21 22
Each number in the main grid can be formed by adding or
multiplying a pair of numbers in the strip below the grid. Each
pair of numbers should be used twice: once as part of an
addition and once as part of a multiplication. For example, a 10
and 24 in the main grid may be solved by the sums, 4 + 6 and 4
x 6, respectively. Enter each sum in the boxes below its answer.
Any blanks in the strip must be deduced, bearing in mind the
numbers are listed in ascending order.
123 456 789
10
11 12
13 14 15
16 17
18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27
28 29
30 31
32
33 34
Post your solution to The Sunday Times Mephisto 3199,
PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email
[email protected]
The first correct solution picked at random after next
Saturday wins Collins World Atlas: Complete Edition,
worth £30.The next four will receive £20 Waterstones
gift vouchers. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.
The Chambers Dictionary 13th edition is the primary
reference. Readers may email comments or queries to
[email protected]
NAME ...................................................................................
ADDRESS...................................................................................
...................................................................................
2 Polypeptide poison (5)
3 Postpone (4,3)
4 Total (3)
5 Spinning toy (9)
6 Venezuelan river (7)
7 Fine (5-4)
9 Disguised (9)
10 Whisky, vermouth and
bitters (9)
13 Nit-picker (7)
15 Please (7)
18 Steadfast (5)
20 Hole borer (3)
POLYGON
From these letters, make
words of four or more letters,
always including the central
letter. Answers must be in the
Concise Oxford Dictionary,
excluding capitalised words,
plurals, conjugated verbs
(past tense etc), adverbs
ending in LY, comparatives
and superlatives.
How you rate
19 words, average; 26, good;
36, very good; 47, excellent.
Each row, column
and 3x3 box must
contain the digits
1 to 9. The digits
within each group
of cells joined by
dotted lines must
add up to the
figure in the top-
left-hand corner
of each group.
Within each
dotted-line group,
a digit cannot be
repeated.
36 350 34 48
285 33 200 40
42 272 22 308
45 13 320 39
TETONOR EASY
Don Manley
1 The postponed next World Cross Country Championships
are due to take place in February 2023 on the infield of this
Australian city’s Mount Panorama motor racing circuit (8)
6 Rope-soled light canvas shoes (11)
13 Blake directed most of the Pink Panther films (7)
14 played the painter Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl (5,8)
15 played Domino Petachi in Never Say Never Again (3,8)
16 Body of water on which Anchorage lies (4,5)
17 Welsh seaside resort with the UK’s longest cable car ride (9)
19 Winston ’s best-known novels were the Poldark series (6)
20 In Greek myth, the nymph spurned by Narcissus (4)
23 Lake District peak north of Derwentwater (7)
25 Aerobatic manoeuvre resulting in level flight at higher
altitude in the opposite direction (9,4)
26 Last novel in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy (5,5)
27 Working with Lise Meitner, coined the term nuclear
fission (4,6)
30 Writer and presenter of Letter from America (8,5)
31 Food flavouring used as a scent in drag hunting (7)
32 Looped cross symbol of ancient Egypt (4) (pictured)
33 Passerine bird of the Dicruridae family; a foolish person (6)
34 “I ask myself, again and again: was there an alternative to
the indiscriminate, brutal, basically rush forward of the
Five-Year Plan?” (Eric Hobsbawm) (9)
38 Despite its name, a peninsula north of Inverness (5,4)
40 Motorsport venue which features Indy Circuit and Grand
Prix layouts (6,5)
42 Inside the Statue of Liberty’s base is an inscription that
includes “Send these, the
homeless, to me” (7-6)
44 “It is much more high and
philosophical to discover things
than a posteriori” (Robert
Boyle) (1,6)
45 Australian artist noted for his
paintings of Ned Kelly (6,5)
46 Christmas (8)
Across
SUKO
CELL BLOCKS
Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the
spaces so that the number in
each circle is equal to the sum of
the four surrounding spaces,
and each colour total is correct.
2 Covered in liquid (5)
3 Spanish explorer, the first documented European to cross
the Mississippi (8,2,4)
4 To officially cancel (7)
5 1920 novel which made Edith Wharton the first female
winner of the Pulitzer prize for literature (3,3,2,9)
6 1985 sci-fi novel by Orson Scott Card (6,4)
7 In a 1953 Mervyn Peake novel, Mr _ goes to Sark to preach (3)
8 Footballer nicknamed El Pibe de Oro (The Golden Boy) (5,8)
9 In poetry, having a stressed syllable after an unstressed one (6)
10 “Lousy but __” (East End banner for George V’s Jubilee) (5)
11 An ingredient, with beans, of succotash (9)
12 Surname of the minister for women and youth appointed
by Helmut Kohl in 1991 (6)
16 British winner of three Olympic dressage gold medals (9,8)
(pictured)
18 In outdated informal speech, excessive or unfair (1,3,5)
21 As Myles na Gopaleen, Flann O’Brien wrote the Lawn
column in the Irish Times, 1940-66 (9)
22 Soviet physicist who won the 1975 Nobel peace prize (6,8)
23 In mathematics, {} can represent the empty (3)
24 Satirist and cricket fan who co-founded Private Eye (6,7)
28 A three-sided box on a long handle (3)
29 Co-writer and singer of the 1964 hit Oh, Pretty Woman (3,7)
30 Actor whose last TV role was Agrippa in Spartacus (2004) (4,5)
35 A series of downloadable digital audio files (7)
36 pinnata has been Mexico’s national flower since 1963 (6)
37 In 2016, Bradley won the British and Commonwealth
welterweight titles by defeating
Sam Eggington (6)
39 “If I go to him, with my fist /
I’ll pash him o’er the face”
(Troilus and Cressida) (5)
41 “Lie thou there, for here comes
the that must be caught with
tickling” (Twelfth Night) (5)
43 A bird of the order
Strigiformes (3)
Down
Divide the grid into square or
rectangular blocks, each
containing one digit only.
Every block must contain the
number of cells indicated by
the digit inside it.
1 Present provided in good
time (4)
2 Device to alert European
that British outcast is
around (7)
3 Transport company
brought in rooms to rest
after work (5,8)
4 Trickster’s trick on the
foreman? (8)
5 Subordinate Clauses? (5)
7 Day off hanging around
and making friends (7)
8 Check small container
during voyage (10)
11 Moving line excerpt one
found gripping? (9,4)
13 Correct tests to trap one’s
leaders (10)
16 Spooner’s little one
ordering something
undrinkable (3,5)
18 Defining line from a quote
about Romeo (7)
20 Food around Lazio once,
regularly missed (7)
22 A writer or two from the
past (5)
23 Following a number
around by backtracking (4)
Down
CROSSWORD 4986 Robert Price
12345 67 8
9 10 11
12
13
14 15
16
17 18 19 20
21 22
23
24 25
26 27
KENKEN
All the digits 1 to 6 must appear in every
row and column. In each thick-line
“block”, the target number in the top
left-hand corner is calculated from the
digits in all the cells in the block, using
the operation indicated by the symbol.
CLUE WRITING CONTEST 1896: CHRISTMAS MARKET
You are invited to write a clue for the word above, in our
cryptic crossword style. The best entry selected after
next Saturday wins a £25 Waterstones voucher. Email
your entry to [email protected].
Winner 1893: Ross Harrison, Dechmont, West Lothian
Incorrect: Naughty erotic dancer stripped right off!
For a full report, visit thesundaytimes.co.uk/cluewriting
NAME ...................................................................................
ADDRESS...................................................................................
...................................................................................
1 In shock as crack and
heroin found in bunk (10)
6 Petty row about drums (4)
9 Quick learner filling more
than one pad (5)
10 Part of the skeleton
uniform in grotesque
carnival (9)
12 Swear one is not trained
by a musician (13)
14 Awful player ignoring his
first boss (8)
15 Head first for Newquay,
going swimming (6)
17 Thrill felt inside without
remorse (6)
19 Evidence of tension in the
Tube? (8)
21 One takes a turn for the
better (8,5)
24 Witness in tense trial
guarded by a soldier? (9)
25 Unattached ladies and
gentlemen last to dance (5)
26 Charges got out of by a
revolutionary worker (4)
27 Enticing and arresting
new role backed by chaps
in film (10)
Across
Down
1 A British Queen deemed
good person for keeping
order? (6)
2 Form of silica in earth’s
crust (6)
3 Little credit given to a
cruel schoolteacher
(“Fish”) (9)
4 Manner with which dale
changes in region of
southern England (8, two
words)
5 Snake is showing evidence
of harmful bacteria (6)
6 Sort of sticky boy
admitting transgression (6)
7 Area of land no longer
British, egg-shaped (6)
8 Demand for justice is
religious virtue, any
number coming in for
mass (6)
9 Cleaner transforming den
(“sty”) (6)
15 Errors yet to be put right
by this unruly type (9)
17 Combination of nice oils
that may enhance the
breast (8)
19 Abnormal pulse — one
admitted medical
problem (6)
20 Electronic device with
double power stuffed with
lots of paper (6)
21 Good old Aussie star (6)
22 Very short relation being
boastful (6)
23 Old mother with problem
in stomach (6)
25 Natural troublemaker
undermining place of
hospitality (6)
26 On outside of fish insect
turned up (6)
The first correct solution opened after next Saturday wins a Cross Townsend black
PVD finish micro-knurl fountain pen worth £175. Three others win £125 Townsend
matte green PVD finish micro-knurl ballpoint pens. All the pens have lifetime
guarantees and embody classic elegance and finesse. Post solutions to: The
Sunday Times Crossword 4986, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email:
[email protected]. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.
Apologies for the wrong assigment of Rosemary and Thyme roles in last week’s 39A clue