Guardian jumbo prize crossword No 29,344: Physical and Human by Maskarade

by

It’s Easter, so we were expecting a Maskarade special and we weren’t disappointed.

The title seemed to be referring to geography and the preamble read: the 27 numbered solutions are entered normally. The others are presented in alphabetical order of their thematic solutions and all lack definition. They are entered jigsaw-fashion.

 

So we have a combination of a normal puzzle with an alphabetical jigsaw, both contained in an overlarge (23 x 23) grid, which was really nine smaller inter-connecting grids. All the answers were either 7 letters long (the vast majority) or 9 or 11. We started by solving as many of the normal clues as possible and inserting them into the grid to provide a scaffold of sorts for the thematic answers. This proved relatively straightforward as there were several obvious anagrams. From 25 across we derived the idea that we might be looking for items of clothing, but that proved to be misleading. Our first thematic answer was BRIXHAM, which explained the title. It was then just a question of solving as many of the thematic clues as we could and then finding a place for them in the grid. Again, this proved to be relatively straightforward with few ambiguities to resolve (although there did seem to be a lot of place names having R as their third letter). We needed a gazetteer for some of the more obscure entries; I was a little troubled by PARRETT which seems to be the only entry that is not a settlement of some kind (Loch Awe is also the name of a village).

In the grid I have highlighted the thematic entries.  There are no numbers, since the numbers given for the normal entries would be wrong if the thematic entries were included, so it seemed simpler to omit them altogether.

Timon and I enjoyed the double challenge inherent in a puzzle of this kind, and it certainly occupied all the time we would normally allow for a prize puzzle with an additional session required to finish filling the grid. Ideal for a Bank Holiday! Many thanks to Maskarade.

 

 

ACROSS
HOT POTATO
7 Awkward matter with sexy Charlotte? (3,6)
A simple charade (Charlotte is a variety of salad potato).
BONE TURQUOISE
8 Rose bouquet in reconstituted artificially coloured ivory? (4,9)
*(ROSE BOUQUET IN).
EATEN IN
9 Dined (not out), having last of wine at about 9 (5,2)
(win)E AT NINE (rev).
GRAPEFRUITS
13 Prague first ordered citrus foods (11)
*(PRAGUE FIRST).
TERRITORIAL
14 Part-time soldier defending his property? (11)
Double definition (one of a noun, one an adjective).
SISTER-IN-LAW
15 Relative spotted carrying in litres, drunk (6-2-3)
*(IN LITRES) inside SAW.
EPIC THEATRE
18 Brechtian dramatic concept of new piece about Mad Hatter (4,7)
*HATTER in *PIECE.
NANOPARTICLES
23 Cultured pearls contain microscopic bits (13)
*(PEARLS CONTAIN).
NORWESTER
24 Wind demolished new resort (9)
*(NEW RESORT).
RAGLANS
25 Theme-word’s overcoats – large one in tatters (7)
L(arge) AN in RAGS. Raglan is also of course a place in Wales.
MAE WEST
26 Graduate points to peroxide blonde (3,4)
MA (graduate) E WEST (points of the compass).
DOWN
EVICTOR
1 One turning out first early winner (7)
E(arly) VICTOR (winner).
DEAD OR ALIVE
2 Criminal evil-doer a DA wanted thus? (4,2,5)
*(EVIL DOER A DA).
RAIN BARRELS
3 Downpour? Lots – held here (4,7)
A charade of RAIN (downpour) and BARRELS (lots).
LEARNDIRECT
4 Online course provider having right credential removed (11)
*R + CREDENTIAL.
RENAULT CLIO
5 Posh Citroen, all rebuilt as a different model (7,4)
*(U (posh) CITROEN ALL).
EMOTION
6 Top volume reflecting fury, say? (7)
NO 1 TOME (all rev).
INGESTS
10 At home visitors ignored starter from Uber Eats (7)
IN (at home) G(u)ESTS.
AB INTRA
11 From within a container, mostly trash (2,5)
A BIN TRA(sh).
TOLUENE
12 Solvent is azure, not black, in colour (7)
(b)LUE (azure) inside TONE (colour).
ELASTOPLAST
16 Proprietary dressing for spuds and drink turned up finally (11)
POTS (spuds) ALE (drink) (both rev), LAST (finally).
WINDOW LEDGE
17 Twist hooter with trim near sash or bow? (6,5)
WIND (twist) OWL (hooter) EDGE (trim); the definition is a bit loose, in my view.
EPIDIASCOPE
18 Optical projector copied sepia design (11)
*(COPIED SEPIA).
WORKS ON
19 Applies oneself (exchanging knight for pawn for for theme word? (5,2)
WORKSOP (theme word) with N (chess notation for knight) instead of P(awn). The repeated “for” in the clue is presumably an error.
KINDEST
20 Most merciful end, laid out in coffin in North (7)
*END in KIST (a Northern English or Scottish word for a coffin).
WARPATH
21 Brave course of action? (7)
Cryptic definition.
HOTFOOT
22 In great haste, having stolen rings in paper (7)
HOT (stolen), OO (rings) inside FT (paper).
Undefined
ARISAIG
• Bahrain’s facing regular losses (7)
Even (regular) letters from bAhRaInSfAcInG. It’s a village in the Highlands.
ASHFORD
• Not a noisy Fiesta, apparently (7)
A SH (quiet) FORD (Fiesta being a Ford marque).
BELFAST
• Local football hero hosting heads of local football association (7)
L(ocal) F(ootball) A(ssociation) inside (George) BEST.
BRISTOL
• Cheese cut – much rejected (7)
BRI(e), LOTS (rev).
BRIXHAM
• Farceur with his initial, poor actor (7)
B(rian) RIX (the farceur), HAM (poor actor).
BRODICK
• Reliable fellow consumes food on and off (7)
(f)O(o)D inside BRICK (reliable fellow). Village on the Isle of Arran.
BURFORD
• Problem raised, floored regularly (7)
RUB (problem, rev – this is a down clue), FlOoReD.
BURSLEM
• Rumbles all over the place (7)
*RUMBLES. One of the “six towns” comprising Stoke-on-Trent.
CHATHAM
• Rabbit meat (7)
CHAT (rabbit) HAM (meat).
CHEADLE
• Cape left in church (7)
HEAD (cape) L(eft) inside CE (church).
DONEGAL
• Accomplished prisoner from the south (7)
DONE (accomplished) LAG (rev). Again, this has to be a down clue.
DORKING
• Golden French piece (7)
DOR (golden in French) KING (piece on a chessboard).
ECCLEFECHAN
• City sign city workman clipped (11)
EC (City) CLEF (sign) EC(city again) HAN(d) (workman). A town in the Scottish Borders where my wife and I stayed once on the return journey from Orkney.
EDGWARE
• Uprooted ragweed (7)
*RAGWEED.
HARWICH
• WC air flushed out in two hours (7)
*(WC AIR) inside H and H.
HELSTON
• New hostel renovated (7)
*(N)(ew) HOSTEL).
HIDCOTE
• Concealed shelter in garden (7)
HID (concealed) COTE (place of shelter for animals). Arguably “garden” is redundant and is in fact a definition.
HONITON
• Stumble across, trapping leg (7)
ON (leg) inside HIT ON.
IPSWICH
• Leading industrialist takes power – using this, reportedly? (7)
I(ndustrialist) P(ower), homophone of “switch”.
LOCH AWE
• Dad’s Army actor drinks brew (4,3)
CHA (brew) inside (Arthur) LOWE.
MAESTEG
• Mum gets the point upside down (7)
MA E (point) GETS (rev).
MARGATE
• Damage by those attending game (7)
MAR (damage) GATE (those attending game).
MERIDEN
• French sea-fish – the fifth seen in Garonne (7)
MER (French for sea) IDE (a fish) (garo)N(ne).
NORWICH
• One enters dilapidated Crown Hotel (7)
I inside *CROWN H(otel).
PADSTOW
• Flat pack (7)
PAD (flat) STOW (pack).
PARRETT
• Role which includes Romeo and Joiner, in French (7)
R(omeo) ET (French for “and”) inside PART (role). This is a river in Somerset: I haven’t found a town or village with the same name.
PENARTH
• Writer takes to painting – his first (7)
PEN (writer) ART (painting) H(is).
PENRITH
• Opening of Harold Pinter adaptation (7)
*(H(arold) PINTER).
PORTREE
• Left extremely rude sweetheart (7)
PORT (left) R(ud)E (sw)E(et). Another Highland village.
REIGATE
• Suggested misdirected walk (7)
Sounds like “wry gait”.
ROEDEAN
• Eggs given to clergyman (7)
ROE (eggs) DEAN (clergyman).
RUISLIP
• Not half ruined by lapse (7)
RUI (ned), SLIP.
RUNCORN
• Smuggle grain (7)
RUN CORN.
ST ASAPH
• Apparently hidden in stolen hoard (2,5)
AP(parently) in STASH (stolen hoard).
SWANSEA
• Main variation of Tchaikovsky work? (7)
SWAN LAKE (Tchaikovsky work) with SEA (main) for LAKE.
TINTERN
• Place in the ground in town’s outskirts (7)
INTER (bury, or place in the ground) inside T(ow)N.
WREXHAM
• King intervening in strike (7)
REX (King) in WHAM.

51 comments on “Guardian jumbo prize crossword No 29,344: Physical and Human by Maskarade”

  1. Didn’t think I’d have much of a chance but decided to have a go.

    My first in were two theme clues that caught my eye as I quickly scanned the clues – PENRITH and ARISAIG (which I have visited fortunately) and so I decided that the theme might be places. And then I got the non-theme DEAD OR ALIVE so had something to put in the grid.

    Tried to do the defined numbered clues first (tho’ not getting them all) and then turned to the themed clues. They were a real mixture but I listed them in order which helped because they were in alphabetical order. And once I noticed how many began with B and P I tentatively started putting them in the grid. It took me a long time with several sittings but I made it with BRODICK and KINDEST being my last two in. And felt a real sense of achievement.

    My favourites were themed clues – ECCLEFECHAN especially.

    And also: BRIXHAM (made me smile), LOCH AWE (likewise), PARRETT, ROEDEAN, SWANSEA, RUNCORN, PORTREE

    Thanks Maskarade and bridgesong

  2. It’s not often I can finish a Maskarade special without recourse to aids, but I recognised all the geographical entities once the wordplay or crossers had made them apparent, with just one exception:

    PARRETT – “I haven’t found a town or village with the same name.” Agreed. But coincidentally I “met” a man of that surname (in an online forum) soon after solving the clue, and it’s unusual for a surname to come solely from a river, so perhaps there once was a settlement? Or maybe it’s just too small to have made it into a gazetteer? 🙂

    Thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong.

  3. As I’ve mentioned here before, I love these Maskarade specials, and this was no exception. It took the “required” three days, but I didn’t feel it was as tricky as previous ones. Sure there were some obscure place-names that required looking up to be certain of, but maybe it was the grid or maybe a sufficient number of non-theme entries that helped ease the way. The special instructions too were quite straightforward. I’m not going to recreate my journey, partly because I’m sure you don’t care but mostly because I’ve forgotten it!

    Actually, the one difficulty I do remember was figuring out how to interpret the phrase “theme-word” that occurred in a couple of clues. Did it mean an instance of the theme or was it a name for the theme category, e.g. “place-names”? Turns out it was the former.

    Thanks M&B

  4. When I had solved 12 and 18, both words completely unknown to me, and I took into account the fact that none of the alphabetical had definitions, I decided I did not have the time for this. Reading through the blog, it was the right decision. I assume the unnumbered clues are all place names, and I have not heard of half of them. Definitely not an easy one for a non-Brit

    Thanks to M & b

  5. Thanks bridgesong for a wonderful blog!
    Googling-rich solving experience.

    Just a couple of observations:
    RAIN BARRELS: Should the whole clue be underlined as the def (tho the WP stops at the ‘lots’ as said in the blog)? Liked the clue.
    AB INTRA (I like such words/phrases…ab initio, de facto… Just feel good when I see them)-
    About ‘Mostly TRAsh’: Normally, we see only the last letter removed when ‘mostly’ is before a word (the last letter of the word itself or a synonym). Here two letters are removed. Liked this as well.
    WINDOW LEDGE: A loose def to the extent that 1) the solution is nounal and the def is adverbial. 2) the ‘near’ doesn’t seem to define it. Despite this, loved the clue.

    Thanks Maskarade!

  6. Thanks bridgesong. Once the first half dozen UK Locations’ emerged, the Wikipedia list with that title became invaluable for the numerous abstruse ones. A lovely and enjoyable work of art by Maskarade – but marred by the irrelevant vandalism of two crossing ‘theme word’ clues in the bottom left corner.

  7. Thanks for the blog, I thought this was brilliant for this sort of prize puzzle helped by the first nice weekend of the year. I sat outside, had three good goes at this and used our old road atlas to check a few. I think PARRETT is fine as a river, the instructions say Physical and Human .
    BURSLEM is the home of the oatcake and the second finest town in the world for producing pottery.
    Only RENAULT CLIO earned a severe Paddington stare.
    Well done Fiona@1 , I remember finishing my first Special, Araucaria then and based on the poem Cargoes.

  8. I too was puzzled by PARRETT being only a river without a town or village to go with it. Decided in the end it must be an error by the setters, but came here to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. I usually decide I don’t have enough time for these holiday prize crosswords, but got sucked in and kept coming back to it over the weekend, once I’d sussed what the theme was. PENRITH was my way into the theme. ECCLEFECHAN had coincidentally come up that week while studying ‘yr Hen Ogledd’ – the old North where Welsh was spoken – the name coming from ‘eglwys fechan’ – small church. Thanks for the blog bridgesong, and of course to the setters.

  10. Frankie G @9: I fear that the comments on the placeholder blog are all now lost to posterity, having been deleted. I should have disabled comments altogether but didn’t know how (I do now!).

  11. Thank you so much to Maskarade. To my surprise I managed to solve this with the help of a friend with only one error. We put BRIGHAM not BRIXHAM. I have been waiting with anticipation for the blog because I was unable to parse KINDEST. My friend and I are Northern lassies but we didn’t know “KIND” = coffin. Wrong part of the North perhaps? She thought it could be German but there was no indicator…

    I was awaiting the blog with baited breath and Bridgesong you did not disappoint! You taught us a new trick as well as explaining the previously unfathomable. We adopted the same approach as you and the other contributors above, but hadn’t thought to distinguish the down factor in those pesky nine letter places. I shall remember that for future purposes. One very small point, in RAGLANS I think there’s a typo and A should be AN.

    Having read the above comments, I was glad we were not alone in much head scratching over PARRETT. I echo Ros in characterising this as brilliant.

    Five stars all round, and thanks again 🌟😎

  12. The usual Maskarade slog.
    And reminiscent of a similiar puzzle a while ago, can’t remember when, but I do remember staring at Googlemaps for ages trying to find placenames.
    The current puzzle was much easier, though, taking only a couple of days to complete.
    My last one in was LEARNDIRECT, it never occurred to me that it might be a proper noun.
    Thanks to all.

  13. Pauline in Brum @11: thanks for your kind comments, but KIST is the Northern word for a coffin, not KIND. I’ll correct the typo.

  14. Like Tomsdad @ 8, I do love placenames and one of my facourite things on a journey to Scotland is to spot British Celtic (the ancestor of modern Welsh) names. Most have had Irish Celtic or Norse imposed on them. But the Ecclefechans of this world still survive, and others (Aberdeen …)
    RHAGLAN is the name in Welsh, presumably being ‘the place before/in front of the village/llan.’
    MAESTEG, the fair field, alas wasn’t very fair or a field when I was there last.

  15. A worthy bank holiday special which gave pleasure repeatedly as different aspects were solved. Intriguing that so many places, particularly the less famous ones, have been visited by various contributors, eg. my sister-in-law in law lives in Brixham, which perhaps added to the satisfaction.
    Thanks to Bridgesong for a fine blog and Maskerade for a memorable puzzle.

  16. Thanks Masquerade and Bridgesong. I was so chuffed at completing this jumbo that I even sent in an entry for the prize (obviously my entry didn’t get drawn) but to blog it so methodically is a huge labour.

    I really enjoyed the whole crossword – some cracking clues and lots of NHOs that required checking with gazetteers.

  18. Wonderful stuff. Many thanks, Maskarade. I knew the Parrett as a prominent river draining the Somerset Levels, so was happy with the exception. It was nice to use the road atlas as physical support for the solve, and its place-name index helped me once or twice.

    The cryptics for the theme words were all so neat. I guess BRIXHAM (my favourite) favoured the older solver.

    Many thanks, bridgesong. I think there’s a bit of green shading missing from BRODICK.

  19. I normally don’t bother with these complex crosswords, especially ones where you have to slot the solutions in post solving. However, on first pass I got quite a few numbered solutions and some of the easier unnumbered ones revealed the theme so I thought I’d continue. Gradually, over several days, I completed all but a couple with the help of an old AtoZ which was languishing in the boot of the car. I only failed on the long Welsh one and the river. Like everyone else I am mystified as to why just one themed clue was not a settlement. Thanks to setter and blogger.

  20. Excellent holiday puzzle. The obvious strategy was to solve as many as possible of the numbered clues and then tackle the others. Writing them in order on a sheet of paper was helpful because it gave a range of possibilities for the initial letter(s) of the remaining solutions. The only problem was that the activity kept me indoors on the one fine day for ages…

    Fortunately I recognised all of the place names apart from PARRETT, which I had to check (I’ve been a cartophile since childhood). I was puzzled that it didn’t seem to be the name of a settlement and therefore left with a doubt. But as Roz says, there’s no reason why it had to be. If Maskerade hadn’t been so clever at finding and interlocking all the others, this wouldn’t have seemed anomalous!

    The top central square was the last to yield for me, not helped by my first putting BURFORD and BURSLEM the wrong way round and, like Anna, taking a long time to see LEARNINGDIRECT.

    Bravissimo to Maskerade and bridgesong

  21. I noticed one of the main cheat sites had ‘works in’, not ‘works on’ in the SW!
    Many thanks to M and B

  22. Enjoyed this very much. I created an interactive grid in cc which helped enormously. In doing so I noticed that the grid itself appears to be a representation of the Jerusalem Cross, see here.
    Appropriate for Easter.

    Thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong.

  23. Pauline in Brum @17, KIST is a lovely word which is a variant of chest. The marvellous description of a Pipe Organ is a “Kist o’ whistles”.
    I got most of this but needed a lot of help for villages/towns/localities. I misspelled BURSLEM as Burselm which made LEARNDIRECT impossible. Even if I had the correct crossers it still would have ben a NHO. Ho hum, but I suppose it passed a few minutes.

  24. Stuck for a long time around the top centre as RAIN BARRELS seemed a poor clue and LEARN DIRECT more or less impossible for a non-UK resident. I was also puzzled by “jigsaw-fashion”. This may be a standard term in crosswords but does not appear in any crossword glossaries that I could find, and it does not seem to me to correspond to how one did jigsaws (though it is at least 60 years since I did one!).

  25. [Thank you so much Tim C@23. Much appreciated. You’re right, Kist is a lovely word. Fortunately, as a Stoke lass, BURSLEM gave me no difficulty. I’m going to look at Kist pictures now 😎. Have a great weekend.]

  26. A delightful puzzle and fitting bank holiday challenge. Thanks to Maskerade (and Bridgesong for the blog).

    As a geography graduate, I spotted the theme straight off from the title, without even reading any of the clues. A quick browse through the unnumbered clues confirm that, as I spotted several place names among them. It still took some time to finish though, since all the unnumbered clues (except one) were 7 letters long so word length couldn’t be used to narrow down their locations and I had to solve most of them before I could unambiguously fit them in the grid.

    I’m not sure why so many people have complained about the River Parrett. The crossword title clearly states ‘physical AND human’ so there SHOULD be several physical geography names in there (I would have complained if there weren’t any!). LOCH AWE is also a physical geography name. The rather trivial settlement of Lochawe (originally just a railway station) is one word but the loch is two. The word length is given as (4,3) so it is clearly a reference to the loch itself.

  27. Togs@24 jigsaw fashion just means fitting the “pieces” (answers) together so that they all eventually fit.
    Araucaria invented the alphabetical jigsaw, a grid with no numbers, answers in alphabetical order and using EVERY letter of the alphabet . Others have followed this including Julius in the FT . Apparently they are no longer possible for normal puzzles because of the APPS , another great triumph for the nerds.
    Azed had a semi-alphabetical last week .

  28. I’ve managed several Maskerade puzzles in the past, but this one wasn’t for me I’m afraid. I didn’t twig the theme and even if I had I doubt if I could have made anything of it, with far too many very obscure place names. I did manage nearly all the numbered clues (but nho LEARN DIRECT so left it blank).

    I don’t know what is meant by ‘jigsaw-fashion’. Surely all puzzles are jigsaws?

  29. poc @28: ordinary puzzles have numbers in the grid which match the numbers on the clues, showing you where to place the answer. Jigsaws leave it to you to determine where the answers must go, in order to fit together.

  31. …has this link: https://crossword.info/jono/Maskarade_29344_Easter – Thanks Jono.
    Too late for this puzzle, but worth remembering for the next UK bank holidays (4 & 25 May, 26 August).
    Alternatively one could download the .PDF (in this case 007.gdn.1we.240330.058_A4.pdf) and add in the answers as text.
    [Set caps lock, choose the Monospace font, and whatever point size (16) works best. The Acrosses need a space after every letter].
    Thanks M&B

  32. I solved most of the ‘places’, realising that they all seemed to be cities, towns, villages and hamlets in Britain and Ireland, but did rather less well with the normal clues. Unfortunately, I failed to solve 2d and 3d, and that made it too hard to complete the jigsaw.

  33. FrankieG @30: true, but (a) Guardian Prize blogs usually appear on a Saturday, so that’s when I reasoned people would expect to see it appear; and (b) I had already specified in the placeholder blog that the blog would be published today.

    As a matter of fact, I understand that The Guardian sometimes publishes the annotated solution on a Friday afternoon, so in theory we could bring forward publication of the blog by a few hours, but I think that people are now accustomed to the blog appearing shortly after midnight (GMT/BST) on the Saturday morning.

  34. [FrankieG @30, that’s good to know. Sorry to bother you but do you know if Jono did a link to the Christmas special? I’m not sure how to contact him or her to ask. Thanks. P.]

  36. Living abroad didn’t help with some of the more obscure place names and I thought this was going to drive me to drink and have to call on Alcoholics Anonymous for support. But luckily I came across an old British road atlas from the other AA and that restored me to health and sanity.

  38. In this household solving the Prize rapidly turned into a team-effort, the team’s printed copies becoming messier and messier as the days went by. I’m enormously impressed at those who completed it over the Bank Hol weekend, and especially at Bridgesong’s comment that fitting the themed answers was “relatively straightforward”: it took us AGES!
    We solved as many of the “normal” clues as we could, numbered each place-name as we decoded it and identified (in pencil) potential sites. It was slow and laborious, took masses of sessions, but we got there in the end – and rewarded ourselves with a coup de champagne. Plus learned about a KIST and ECCLEFECHAN into the bargain.
    Many thanks Maskarade & Bridgesong.

  39. [Thank you so much Jay@35. I can’t wait to give it a go. I’m so pleased there is someone with the expertise to convert a PDF so those of us without printers can share in the fun. I owe you a drink if we ever meet. P.🍾🍸 or 🍻. Your choice 😎]

  40. It’s pretty much been said by others but just wanted to chip in with my appreciation of this fine puzzle!

  41. [Thanks P. That’s the best offer I’ve had all day! 🍻please. I hope you enjoy the Christmas puzzle]

  42. Sheffield hatter @2 I got Parrett by looking it up but like you was uncertain because it is a river. Only on reading the blog did I pay attention to the fact that the theme is specifically physical and human geography. Since this seems to be the only physical geography answer, this may have been intended as a kind hint.

  43. I was messed up in the top middle as I had 3D as RAIN BUCKETS which mostly worked, but meant Dorking couldn’t be Dorking.
    Otherwise enjoyed this, found out lots of new places

  44. Ha Julia@43! Another one with RAIN BUCKETS. One of three errors which stopped me from completing the grid. I also had MERSTON (French SEA + STONE (fish) minus its 5th letter seen in Garonne) and MARSDEN (not explained). I entered PARRETT very lightly as it was the odd one out. I quite like jigsaw variants, but I didn’t enjoy looking up so many obscure place names.

  46. Thanks, Maskarade – fully up to the very high standard you’ve set for these specials, which I always enjoy tremendously.

    As an inveterate cartophile I had no difficulty coming up with the place names – and having visited 29 of the 37 probably helped.

  47. I agree with Martyn@4; this was not an easy crossword for those of us from overseas. Not complaining, as I take it on board that this can sometimes be the case when I choose to do British crosswords. Unlike some others I did keep going once I twigged the theme, as I had a lot of time on my hands over Easter due to COVID isolation. It was certainly interesting along the way to recognise many placenames that are also placenames here in Australia. However, extensive googling was required to solve the ones I did, so I ended up with the grid pretty much filled but with a few blanks and also question marks against some answers. This comprehensive blog from bridgesong was therefore very useful. (Like Julia@43 and JOHNJB@44, I was another “RAIN BUCKETS” for 3d which mucked things up a bit, for instance). Thanks to Maskarade, bridgesong and other commenters above, especially to Jay@22 for pointing out the pattern reminiscent of the Jerusalem cross.

  49. molonglo @6, although Donegal is in Ulster, it belongs to the Republic of Ireland. So we have to say “British Isles”rather than “UK”.

  50. Put me in the category of those who think this is really clever but a slog too far. I enjoy the jigsaws normally, and despite getting over half the undefined answers, I couldn’t get enough of the others to fit them anywhere — so many place names shared letters in the same places! And I don’t enjoy trawling Google to find place names I’ve never heard of, although to be fair, looking at the answers now, most weren’t too obscure.

  51. I had ragtags in for 25ac thinking that the reference was to an eclectic group of places. Sort of half worked with large gt and one a in rags…

Comments are closed.