Crossword solution

The unclued lights are the eleven England footballers who LINED UP at the kick-off of the Euro FINAL on 11 July. The shaded squares from top to bottom reveal the manager, GARETH SOUTHGATE.

The unclued lights are the nouns from the opening sentence of The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter. TAFFETA was extracted from (T)ISSUE, TULIP(A), (F)AILS, (F)REEST, EQUIP(E)S and NO(TA)TION. First prize Robert Stephens, Bearsted, Kent Runners-up R.

The name was Margaret, whose various versions are suggested by THE SPECTATOR (1: Mag), BARN OWL (10/36: Madge), LEAD HAMMER (14/34: Madge), MAGPIE (19A: Madge or Maggie), CRICKET STUMP (48: Peg), HALFPENNY (2: Mag or Meg), TURTLE HARPOON (9: Peg), PIN (16: Peg) and TEASE (Mag). MARGARET (22/23) was to be shaded. Title: cf. pearl, the meaning of Margaret.

Unclued lights were stories in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. (The Adventures of the: EMPTY (41) HOUSE (2), DANCING MEN (12), PRIORY (31) SCHOOL (1A), ABBEY (9) GRANGE (45), SECOND (1D) STAIN (42), and of BLACK (26) PETER (5). First prize Jonathan Dollin, Droitwich, Worcs Runners-up Ben Stephenson, London SW12; Mrs L.

The announcement reads: ‘Fifty years ago, on July the third, Jac’s first crossword in this series was published.’ The shaded squares (from top to bottom) can be arranged to reveal SMURF, SARAH (Hayes, aka La Jerezana) MR MAGOO, MASS, COLUMBA, DOC, PABULUM, MARK (Kelmanson, aka CheeseCracker), ASCOT, RICHARD (Browne, aka Fieldfare) and JAMES (Brydon, aka Lavatch).

CHERRY, NETTLE, SMOKE, PLUM-PUDDING, BEES, EGG, SUNBEAM and WIND are the perimetric answers to riddles posed by NUTKIN in The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter. Nutkin’s brother is called TWINKLEBERRY (19/11) and Nutkin is a SCIURUS VULGARIS (33/35A) (red squirrel). Shaded squares give the letters of POTTER.

The unclued lights form pairs of anagrams, one word in each pair being a place-name: 1A/6A, 1D/21, 6D/13, 11/38, 19/30 and 22/26A.

Twelve symmetrically disposed unclued entries comprise three pairs of Spoonerisms (an anagram of the title): POURING RAIN/ROARING PAIN, FRYING PAN/PRYING FAN and COTTON REEL/ROTTEN KEEL.

The perimeter quote is from ‘Ode to the West Wind’. The remaining unclued lights were the east wind (24A), south wind (30A), north wind (37A), and west wind (17A) which was to be highlighted.

The unclued lights (including the pair at 24/28) are CHEESES. First prize Rhidian Llewellyn, London SW14 Runners-up H.

The unclued lights are characters and places associated with King Arthur.

The unclued lights are ferns: RUSTY-BACK (26/5A), WALL RUE (48/7A), MAIDENHAIR (1D/11), OSMUNDA (18), BIRD’S-NEST (20/45) and POLYPODY (24). PTERIDOMANIA (diagonally from 10) could have induced this puzzle and was to be shaded. Title: cf. Adder’s-tongue.

The unclued lights are the final headwords for B, D, E, F, S, T, U, W, as listed in Chambers. First prize Peter Summerton, Southampton Runners-up Mrs D.

Unclued lights are nuts, as suggested in the perimetrical rhyme.

The traditional county towns were Chester (misprinted as CHEATER: 27), Durham (DERHAM: 21), Derby (DERRY: 32), Lewes (LENES: 36), Reading (RENDING: 28) and York (WORK: 8). The correct letters could give SUBWAY (26), examples of which are UNDERGROUND (1A), TUNNEL (17) and METRO (22A). Title: ‘Appleby’ misprinted.

The unclued lights are HORSES.

The ‘Transport of Delight’, in the song by Flanders and Swann, was that ‘big six-wheeler, scarlet-painted, diesel-engined, London Transport, ninety-seven horse-power omnibus’. First prize H.

The solution grid includes the letter L fifty times (L x 50 = 2500). Coincidentally, Doc and his wife, Jean, celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary on 3 April, the publication date of the issue.

The theme was C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 38A (of Scotland), 43A and 22D were all called ‘The Lion’ (see Brewer’s entry for lion); 11A, 41A and 9D are all witches; 12A, 34A and 6D are wardrobes.

The unclued lights consist of the names of two countries overlapping by two or three letters: eg 25D ‘JAPANAMA’ gives ‘Japan’ and ‘Panama’.