Spectator Christmas Special 2025 by Doc

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The 2025 Spectator Christmas Special – a mammoth effort by Doc, with (approx) 81 clues and no less than 51(?) thematic unclued entries in seven categories! Fortunately, the Christmas edition of the magazine was a triple-weeker, so I had almost 5 weeks to solve and blog. I think I have solved/deduced them all, some on the last day before submission, but readers/commenters may have come up with alternative possibilities – time will tell when the official solution is published on Thursday…

The preamble states that:

“The unclued lights consist of seven themed categories A to G (with G being interpreted very loosely) which are highlighted in yellow in the grid. Each themed category leads to six unclued theme words A to F, one of two words and another hyphened.”

The categories seem to be handily highlighted in the printed grid, although the highlighting of the one in Row 5 seems to have missed its last letter – I presumed this was just a printing error, and not of any thematic significance…

The preamble caused me a couple of moments of uncertainty – I originally presumed that A to G and A to F were just symbolic notation, i.e. seven categories and six answers within each category. I didn’t realise until later that A to G and A to F were the initial letters of the words in each of those sets, which eventually helped to reduce permutations! And I still am not sure about the last phrase – ‘one of two words  and another hyphened‘. I originally read that as meaning that each set of 6 had a two-word answer and a hyphened answer, but that didn’t transpire – and it doesn’t seem to apply across the whole set of thematic entries – in my version of the solution!

Anyway, only one thing to to – get on and solve as many normal clues as possible, to provide as many crossers as possible to start deducing the thematic categories and entries.

A lot of the solving was done in the first week, and much beer (and wine) has flowed under the bridge (of my nose) since then over the Xmas and NY period, so I don’t recall the minutiae of the solving process, but it soon became clear – from a combination of their own crossers, plus other thematic items becoming guessable – what the highlighted categories were:

  • ARTISTS
  • BATTLES
  • CAPITALS
  • DOGS
  • EQUINES
  • FLORA
  • GREENS

And with a 7 by 6 grid drawn up next to my working copy, I started to fill them in. AIREDALE; EL ALAMEIN; EDINBURGH; FIDO; ANDY WARHOL were amongst some of the earlier ones I got. EL GRECO then meant that there were three two-word entries – along with El Alamein and Andy Warhol.

Not to worry – I pressed on and found ARKLE and FRANKEL, famous equines, as well as ECHINACEA and CELANDINE, ASPARAGUS and ACACIA; CLYDESDALE and CANALETTO. And so on – time passed!

And then I kind of ground to a halt. I had most of the normal clues solved – bar 20A ?AC? and 28A ?EAN, with some uncertainty around 21D COLD DAY and 68A END-USER. And I had a large-ish proportion of the longer unclued entries, and a stubborn rump of shorter ones that were making holes in my matrix of A-G/A-Fs, and proving a little chewier.

I went away on holiday and spent many fruitless minutes picking this up, staring at the grid/matrix, maybe jotting in a possibility, and then putting it down again.

When I came home, with three days to deadline, I still had one unsolved clue – 29A – and several unsatisfactorily-parsed – 20A, 21D, 68A – and about six gaps in the matrix. A bit of heavy donkey-work – Wiki-oogling, crossword lists, pattern-matchers – finally got the last few thematic items (I think!) – BLUE BELL, BEET, FLAG, FRIJOL, BIDET.

So by my reckoning, the ‘looseness’ of the G category is that ‘greens’ is being used for salads/’side vegetables’ generally – BEET(root?), FRIJOL (beans). The only ‘equine’ I could find for B was BIDET, a type of pony, and FLAG/iris was a bit of a guess for the F in Flora.

That FLAG gave me my LOI (last one in) – LEAN(NE Battersby) at 29A, ‘Corrie‘ not being an area of much expertise for me, and I still can’t satisfactorily parse 20A PACE from the west and east parts of Paris, but it must surely be that from the definition. And I have two two-entry thematic answers – DESERT ORCHID and BLUE BELL, but I don’t think bluebell is usually hyphen(at)ed?…

 

Fingers crossed that I might have made the right guesses in those crucial areas, but either way ‘thanks’ and ‘chapeau’ to Doc for a stern test and impressive grid construction, with that amount of thematic material squeezed in!

It has been a bit of a grind to get the parsing done below in time – I am happy to correct any errors or omissions pointed out in the comments…

 

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing
11 BREVE Bishop always upset item in bar (5)

B (bishop) + REVE (ever, always, upset)

[bar in a musical sense!]
13 KIR Drink Church of Scotland finally banned (3)

KIR(K) – church in Scotland, banning final letter
16 GAWAIN Knight upset silver hay-cart (6)

GA (AG, argentum, silver, upset) + WAIN (hay cart)

[Sir Gawain, knight of Arthurian legend]
18 AMISS Friends from abroad three-quarters down the list. That’s wrong (5)

AMIS (ami, French, i.e. from abroad, for friend, plural) + S (third letter, or three-quarters along, of liSt)
20 PACE Walk in west and east parts of Paris (4)

P (western, or leftmost letter of Paris) + ACE?
26 PALE After parking drink in enclosed area (4)

P (parking) + ALE (drink)

[a pale being a fence stake, or anything enclosing/fencing something in]
29 LEAN Corrie character not born in France taking extra time (4)

LEAN(NE) – Leanne Battersby, a character from Coronation Street – losing NE, born, French, so ‘not born in France’! – giving LEAN (printing term, taking extra time)
30 TERN Seabird seen during the pm? (4)

hidden word – the TERN, a seabird, can be seen in the afTERNoon, or pm!
31 ASPECTS Features of new campsites I’m leaving (7)

subtractive anagram, i.e. new and leaving, of CA(M)PS(I)TES, without IM, so IM leaving!
32 OSLO Capital of Czechoslovakia? (4)

hidden word in czechOSLOvakia
33 KITTY Pool equipment, extremely tacky (5)

KIT (equipment) + TY (extreme letters of TackY)
34 A-SIDE See 53 Across (1-4)

see 53A
36 NELSON Admiral at Mass by Haydn in NZ city (6)

triple defn – Horation NELSON was an admiral; Haydn wrote the NELSON Mass; and NELSON is a city in New Zealand
38 GUARANIS Unusual gains about former republic’s currency (8)

G_ANIS (anag, i.e. unusual, of GAINS) around UAR (United Arab Republic, former pan-Arab union between Egypt and Syria)

[the guarani being a monetary unit of Paraguay]
44 GAS COAL Fossil fuel that’s piped in swapped (3-4)

not completely sure on this one – maybe CD? – COAL GAS might be piped around, whereas GAS COAL is a fossil fuel – the constituent words swapped around?…
46 STATER Old Greek coin, one affirms (6)

double defn – a STATER is an old Greek coin; and a STATER might affirm their beliefs
48 DRALON 51 produced acrylic fibre (6)

indirect anag, i.e. produced, of RONALD (Reagan, 51A)
51 REAGAN Unsure a gangster is holding the president (6)

hidden word in, i.e. held by, ‘unsuRE A GANgster’
53 SEVEN(-A-SIDE) & 34 Sporting contest opening shortly in holiday area (5-1-4)

SE_A_SIDE (holiday area) around VEN(T) (opening, cut short by a letter)
54 ARAR One very unusual stunted tree (4)

A (one) + RAR(E) (rare, very unusual, stunted by one letter)
56 ISLA Girl’s saving scheme with pound invested (4)

IS_A (Individual Savings Account) around (invested by) L (libra, pound, as in LSD)
58 CRIB Copy in bed (4) 

double defn – to CRIB can be to copy; and a CRIB can be a bed
59 ZEST Relish appearance in quizzes tonight (4)

hidden word in, i.e. making an appearance in, ”quizZES Tonight’
61 KOREAN Asian, after kick-off, sped round European (6)

KO (kick off) + R_AN (sped) around E (European)
62 ANCHOR Oddly, no name in Rannoch Moor (6)

subtractive anagram, i.e. oddly, of RAN(N)OCH, with no second N, or name
63 HOARDS Stores – huge numbers broadcast (6)

homophone, i.e. broadcast – HOARDS (stores) can sound like HORDES, huge numbers
67 LEGLET Garter, maybe, such as held by count, returning (6)

L_LET (tell, count, e.g. votes, money, returning) around (holding) EG (such as, for example)

[A leglet being a term for anything decorative worn on the leg, e.g. a garter]
68 END-USER The last link in the chain! (3,4)

CD? The end-user of a product is the last link in the chain of production/marketing/distribution…
69 PALM COURT We’d left talcum powder around a prestigious hotel’s atrium (4,5)

subtractive anagram, i.e. around, of TALCUM PO(WDE)R without WED, we’d left!)

[a ‘palm court’ being a generic term for a large atrium containing palm trees at a prestigious hotel]
71 EYE CANDY I announced borders of county a lovely thing to see (3,5)

EYE (homophone, i.e. announced – EYE can sound like I) + CANDY (c and y, bordering letters of CountrY)
73 ADO Bustle coming from Braveheart party (3)

A (heart, or middle letter, of brAve) + DO (party)
76 HUSH Keep quiet – it’s semi-confidential (4)

HUSH (HUSH) – half of hush-hush, so semi-confidential!
77 MALMESBURY Slumber disturbed during month in abbey (10)

MA_Y (month) around LMESBUR (anag, i.e. disturbed, of SLUMBER)

[Malmesbury Abbey, in Wiltshire]
78 TOTOPOLY Waddington board game featuring Oz dog by higher education centre (8)

TOTO (Dorothy’s dog in the Wizard of Oz) + POLY (polytechnic, higher education centre)

[Totopoly being a board game featuring horse racing and betting – i.e. the Tote]
79 HASSLE Annoy, batting lashes (6)

anag, i.e. batting, of LASHES
80 REINDEER Could be Dancer in wet weather, my love, reportedly (8)

double homophone, i.e. reportedly – RAIN (wet weather) + DEAR (my love) can sound like REIN + DEER !
Down
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing
1 IMARET Turkish hospice – it hides spirit (6)

I_T around (hiding) MARE (Shakespearean, evil spirit, nightmare)
2 ADES British composer’s regular baldness (4)

regular letters of ‘bAlDnEsS’

[English composer/pianist/conductor Thomas Ades]
3 LETTISH Language of the order of the Thistle! (7)

anag, i.e. the order of, of THISTLE!
4 RANI Princess ruled India? (4)

RAN (ruled) + I (India)
5 NORE Sandbank in the Thames Estuary or in Tyneside (4)

N_E (the North-East, Tyneside) around OR
6 COVEN Gang of thirteen will stipulate worker has to leave (5)

COVEN(ANT) – stipulate, removing ANT, or worker leaving

[a coven can refer generally to a gathering of witches, or specifically to one of 13 witches]
7 PARISH Clergyman’s responsibility at capital hotel (6)

PARIS (capital city) + H (hotel)
8 ICE Rocks at the bar (3)

punning CD/double defn? – ICE can be diamonds/rocks; and ‘rocks’ at the bar can be cubes of ICE
9 SAVOIE To know French right away, by Eastern département (6)

SAVOI(R) (to know, French, losing R – right away) + E (eastern)
10 STENCIL Design turned up in acrylic net stockings (7)

reversed hidden word in, i.e. turned up in, ‘acryLIC NET Stockings’
12 ELITISTS T.S. Eliot is cycling off over to privileged members (8)

subtractive anagram, i.e. cycling, of T S ELI(O)T IS – losing O (over), so ‘off’, or kill, O)
14 MACLE Staff holding large twin crystal (5)

MAC_E (staff) around (holding) L (large)
15 ULRIC Warhammer god aboard foul rickshaw (5)

hidden word in, i.e. aboard, ‘foUL RICkshaw’

[Ulric the Slayer being a god/character in the game Warhammer]
16 GIBE Scoff and carp, endlessly (4)

the GIBE(L) is a European carp – endlessly it gives GIBE, or scoff
17 NANTONG It’s no good admitting Chekhov to city on the River Hao (7)

N_G (no good) around (admitting) ANTON (Anton Chekhov)

[Nantong being a Chinese city on the River Hao]
19 INITIAL Confirm 11 Latin changes (7)

anag, i.e. changes, of II LATIN
21 COLD DAY Lady and I frolic during the winter (4,3)

anag, i.e. frolicking of LADY and DOC (I, from our setter’s perspective)
22 HIAWATHA Strange what a haircut reveals as Onandaga chief (8)

anag, i.e. strange, of WHAT A HAI(R) (hair, cut short!)
23 LEANDER Mythological swimmer’s name in editorial (7)

LEA_DER (newspaper editorial) around N (ame)
24 EASES Stops blowing top and relaxes (5)

(C)EASES – stops removing, or blowing, top letter
25 BEAU Lover from the East End, on the phone (4)

homophone, i.e. on the phone – a BEAU (lover) can sound like BOW (East End area)
27 UPEND Overturn at university close (5)

UP (at university) + END (close)
28 REMBRANDT Note to Frenchman, former German Chancellor and artist (9)

RE (note, do-re-mi) + M (monsieur, Frenchman) + BRANDT (Willy Brandt, former German chancellor)
35 ENGROSS Totally captivate English friend? (7)

ENG (English) + ROSS (character in the sitcom ‘Friends’)
37 SNOOTIER Oddly no Tories are more disdainful (8)

anag, i.e. oddly, of NO TORIES
39 ROOSEVELT Jumpers touched, we’re told, 8 before 51 (9)

double homophone, i.e. we’re told – ROOSE (roos, kangaroos, jumpers) + VELT (homophone, the VELT in Roosevelt can sound like FELT, touched)

[FDR (POTUS 32) was 8 presidents before Ronald Reagan, 51A (POTUS 40)]
40 BONANZA Stroke of luck at the Ponderosa? (7)

punning CD/double defn? – a BONANZA can be a stroke of luck; and the TV series BONANZA was set at the Ponderosa Ranch
41 APERY Imitation table linen with no name (5)

(N)APERY – table linen, with no N – name
42 HEELING Closely following cobbler’s work (7)

double defn – to HEEL can be to follow closely, usually a well-trained dog; and HEELING is something a cobbler will do
43 SLADE Reported killed in Fletcher’s prison (5)

homophone, i.e. reportedly – SLAYED (killed) can sound like SLADE (the sitcom Porridge featuring Norman Stanley Fletcher was set in HMP Slade)
45 SENATOR Congressman’s Vauxhall model (7)

double defn – a SENATOR can be a congressman; and the SENATOR was a Vauxhall model of car
47 TABLA Bill and note for pair of drums (5)

TAB (bill) + LA (note, do-re-mi)
49 WIDE Broad taking wicket at start of innings dismissed Elgar (4)

W (wicket, cricket notation0 + IDE (starts of ‘Innings Dismissed Elgar’)
50 NOON It’s the time when nobody fails to finish (4)

NO-ON(E) (nobody) failing to finish = NOON
52 GREEN LIGHT The niggler changed ‘Go’ signal (5,5)

anag, i.e. changed, of THE NIGGLER
55 OBOES Cockney tramps’ instruments (5)

a Cockney dropping his or her ‘aitches might pronounce (H)OBOES (tramps) as OBOES (instruments)
57 BRIGG Brother with one horse mentioned at fair by Delius (5)

BR (brother) + I (one) + GG (geegee, horse)

[Brigg Fair being a traditional English folk song, adapted into a choral arrangement by Frederick Delius]
58 CNUT English king conduct not even seen (4)

odd letters, i.e. even ones not seen, of CoNdUcT
60 EXPANSE Stretch of river full of vessels (7)

EX_E (the River Exe) around (full of ) PANS (cooking vessels)
64 SETOSE Drunkard trips up in place of bishop, bristling? (6)

SE_E (the diocese, or office of a bishop) around TOS (sot, drunkard, tripped up)
65 RE-ECHO Come back again? (2-4)

CD – if something RE-ECHOes, it comes back again
66 TRIUNE 3 in 1 – melody that’s going round state (6)

T_UNE (melody) around RI (Rhode island, US state)
70 EBOR Primate’s signature on posh gown is turned over (4)

ROBE – posh gown – turned over gives EBOR, the signature of the Bishop of York, Eboracum
72 DEVA Some wide variety in Roman Chester (4)

hidden word in, i.e. some of, ‘wiDE VAriety’

[Deva being the Roman name for Chester]
74 RABI Heartless scholar at spring grain harvest (4)

RA(B)BI – scholar losing middle letter, or heart

[‘rabi’ being a spring grain harvest in India/Pakistan]
75 EDP Mendips on and off reveal computing essential (3)

alternate letters, i.e. on-and-off, of mEnDiPs

[EDP being Electronic Data Processing, essential for computing]

1 comment on “Spectator Christmas Special 2025 by Doc”

  1. Jay
    #1 - Tue 13th Jan 26, 04:36

    Many thanks for the blog, mc_rapper. That must have been a lot of work especially with the automation, bravo!

    My grid and selection of unclued entries is the same as yours and I had the same query regarding PACE. It was suggested that had the clue ended “…Paris, France (4)” then it would have worked (taking the PA and CE from the outside letters, which is a neat idea).

    I thought this was one of best Christmas puzzles and given that Doc (as Maskarade) also delivered the Guardian Christmas jumbo that is a considerable amount of work on his part, all much appreciated.

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