Thanks to Pasquale for the puzzle – lots to like, and my favourites were 21ac, 3dn, 18dn, and 20dn.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DAR ES SALAAM |
A girl turning over in a dream when disturbed in city (3,2,6)
|
| definition: a city in Tanzania
A LASS=”A girl” reversed/”turning over”; in an anagram/”when disturbed” of (a dream)* |
||
| 9 | IMPASTO |
This writer’s quiet, a holy person revealed by old painting (7)
|
| definition: a technique used in painting
IM (I’m, I am, “This writer’s”) + P (piano, “quiet”) + A (from surface) + ST (saint, “holy person”) + O (old) |
||
| 10 | SEMINAL |
Pioneering conceptual artist in short trade event (7)
|
| Tracy EMIN is the “conceptual artist” [wiki]; inside SAL-[e]=”trade event” cut “short” | ||
| 11 | PROLACTIN |
Expert not to have enough money, it’s said, as milk producer’s helper (9)
|
| definition: a protein hormone that supports lactation
PRO (professional, “Expert”); plus LACTIN sounds/”it’s said” like ‘lack tin’=”not to have enough money”, as ‘tin’ is slang for “money” |
||
| 12 | NYALA |
US state in the role of wild animal (5)
|
| definition: a type of antelope
NY (New York, “US state”) + A LA (à la, from French, in the manner of, “in the role of”) |
||
| 13 | RIAL |
Bit of cash made by heartless opponent (4)
|
| definition: the rial is the currency of Iran
RI-[v]-AL=”opponent”, without its ‘heart’ or central letter |
||
| 14 | APPLE SAUCE |
Supply a cup please for stewed fruit (5,5)
|
| anagram (“Supply”, suppl-y, as in ‘supple’) of (a cup please)* (edited to correct the spacing of APPLE SAUCE, thanks to comment from muffin) |
||
| 16 | BRIGANDAGE |
Group capturing apparatus, taking time plundering (10)
|
| BAND=”Group”, around RIG=”apparatus”; plus AGE=”time” | ||
| 19 | SHOO |
Go away and make no noise with love over (4)
|
| SH (be quiet! / “make no noise”); plus O (zero, “love” in tennis) + O (an over, in cricket) | ||
| 21 | MOCHA |
One drink and second drink that’s different (5)
|
| MO (moment, a “second” of time) + CHA (tea, “drink that’s different [from mocha]”) | ||
| 22 | SNICKERED |
Son sent to prison, one ultimately angry-looking, expressed a little amusement (9)
|
| S (Son); plus NICK=”prison”; plus ultimate letter of [on]-E; plus RED=”angry-looking” | ||
| 24 | SORT OUT |
Discipline soldiers sunk in alcoholic drink (4,3)
|
| OR (other ranks, “soldiers”) in STOUT=”alcoholic drink” | ||
| 25 | PUDDING |
Food theologian favoured being fed to dog (7)
|
| DD (Doctor of Divinity, “theologian”) + IN (popular, “favoured”); all inside PUG=”dog” | ||
| 26 | STRIPTEASER |
Starter and pies wrong for entertainer who needs good figure? (11)
|
| anagram/”wrong” of (Starter pies)* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DIPLOMATIC CORPS |
Awful mod politics – crap group representing country (10,5)
|
| anagram/”Awful” of (mod politics crap)* | ||
| 2 | RASTA |
A prominent Russian upset adherent of African religion (5)
|
| definition refers to the Afrocentric Rastafari religion
A TSAR=”A prominent Russian”, reversed/”upset” |
||
| 3 | SHOOTUP |
With drink around, sound is to increase dramatically (5,2)
|
| definition as in a number/statistic that is shooting up
HOOT=”sound” with SUP=”drink” around |
||
| 4 | ARSENAL |
Ways academy may be set up for club (7)
|
| definition refers to Arsenal the football club
LANES=”Ways” + RA (Royal Academy of Arts); all reversed upwards/”set up” |
||
| 5 | ADMONISH |
A fellow hugging maiden is husband getting reproach (8)
|
| A (from surface); plus DON=”fellow” (at a university) around M (maiden, in cricket); plus IS (from surface) + H (husband) | ||
| 6 | MONTAGUS HARRIER |
Bird, exceptionally smart, hung o’er air (8,7)
|
| anagram/”exceptionally” of (smart hung o’er air)* | ||
| 7 | KIPPER |
Captain, not opener – one’s smoked before meal (6)
|
| definition refers to kippers as fish that are smoked before eating
[s]-KIPPER=”Captain” without the opening letter |
||
| 8 | CLEAVE |
Stick around, then go (6)
|
| definition as in ‘stick to’ / ‘cleave to’ something
C (circa, “around”) + LEAVE=”go” |
||
| 15 | PARAMOUR |
Lover in the morning in room losing heart (8)
|
| AM (e.g. as in 9AM, 09:00 in the morning); inside PAR-[L]-OUR=”room” without its central letter/”heart” | ||
| 16 | BEMUSE |
Honour to have value producing puzzle (6)
|
| BEM (British Empire Medal, “Honour”) + USE=”value” | ||
| 17 | DESKTOP |
Some French kit I discarded before work in computer location (7)
|
| DES (“Some”, in French); plus K-[I]-T with the “I discarded”; before OP (opus, “work”) | ||
| 18 | GLIMPSE |
Quickly observe little devils in endless merriment (7)
|
| IMPS=”little devils”; in GLE-[e]=”endless merriment” | ||
| 20 | OLD AGE |
Told a gentleman to conceal senior citizenship (3,3)
|
| hidden/concealed in [T]-OLD A GE-[ntleman] | ||
| 23 | KUDOS |
So getting duck not century brings reverse of commendation needed (5)
|
| SO (from surface) + DU-[c]-K minus c for “century”; all in “reverse”
for the surface reading, a duck is a score of zero and a century is a score of a hundred for a batter in cricket |
Just PROLACTIN held me up today – thanks both
Another enjoyable challenge with the usual smattering of obscurities which were all gettable and parsable from the fair constructions. I solved a few from guessing the solution and parsing afterwards such as PROLACTIN, BRIGANDAGE and SNICKERED. Favourites were APPLE SAUCE, MOCHA, STRIPTEASER, BEMUSE and GLIMPSE. I’d be interested to know how many contributors knew MONTAGUS HARRIER.
Ta Pasquale & manehi.
7d made me think of Ace Rimmer in Red Dwarf: “Smoke me a KIPPER, skipper, I’ll be back for breakfast”. DIPLOMATIC CORPS is a nice anagram. NHO the bird – that is, the specific harrier, but playing with the left over anagrist/crossers only seemed to give one possibility. Thanks Pasquale and manehi.
Pasquale has certainly been harder than this. Lots of friendly anagrams to get you going here, and fewer obscurities than normal. I had never heard of the MONTAGUS HARRIER, but with all of the crossing letters in place, there was only that one plausible sorting of those letters. (ETA: crossed with TT @3.)
One could quibble that Rastafari is Jamaican in origin, not African. But the religion is generally described as Afro-centric, which I think lets the setter off the hook.
Lovely crossword, as we’ve learned to expect from The Don.
Blundered in with sniggered until KUDOS cam to the rescue.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi
Lovely puzzle. I was very much on Pasquale’s wavelength and nothing really held me up. Favourites ADMONISH and the nice hidden OLD AGE.
The only slightly off note was the inelegant anagram fodder for MONTAGU’S HARRIER. I have seen one, in Italy, though.
manehi – you have the word spacing wrong for APPLE SAUCE.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi
mrp @ 4 Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was known as Ras Tafari: his followers in Jamaica adapted that for their belief system.
AlanC@2 as with many others never heard of the bird
But nevertheless enjoyed the puzzle so thanks P & M
A quicker solve than usual for a Pasquale but just as fun. Not heard of the HARRIER but once the second word was in there was only really one assortment of letters that looked plausible.
Liked STRIPTEASER and PARAMOUR
Thanks Manehi and Pasquale
I mis-parsed cleave from its two opposite meanings: cleave together (stick around?) and break apart (go?). Thanks to Pasqale & manehi
MONTAGU’S HARRIER is brilliant. If you’ve ever seen a male hovering, you’d know how apt the clue is.
New for me: PROLACTIN; MONTAGU’S harrier (knew of harriers but not this type); BEM = British Empire Medal.
I held myself up for a while by entering SWELL UP, rather than SHOOT UP: ‘well’ = ‘sound’? OK, ‘hoot’ is a lot better.
[michelle @13: my dad was awarded a British Empire Medal for “outstanding courage and devotion to duty” in WW2.]
Clear clueing except I had ‘swell up’ instead of SHOOT UP until I looked at IMPASTO.
[edit: looks like I’m not the only one]
I started well but then hit the buffers. I almost got there in the end but needed help.
Nho NYALA (I had NYASA which is a wildebeest apparently) or RIAL. I worked my way through to PROLACTIN which stirred a faint memory. Very pleased to remember MONTAGU’S HARRIER which helped a lot, and DAR ES SALAAM was the only city possible after flirting with a misspelt Rio Da Janeiro. I didn’t know that Tracey Emin was a conceptual artist, but realised that was the answer.
All perfectly fair and very enjoyable. Liked PARAMOUR, BRIGANDAGE and ARSENAL.
Thanks to Pasquale and manehi
Beaten by the nho PROLACTIN as I did not spot the homophone. I share Alastair’s appreciation @12 of the clue for MONTAGU’S HARRIER which is a pretty decent CAD/extended definition.
Thanks both
AlanC @2 – I knew the MONTAGU’S HARRIER and wrote it when I saw the anagram, same appreciation of the clue as others – but I had to dig for PROLACTIN.
Thank you manehi and Pasquale.
Very straightforward, which is odd for Pasquale
I usually struggle with them, but I actually parsed every clue.
As usual I had not heard of the fauna, but both Montagu’s Harrier and Nyala were fairly gettable. I have a feeling NYALA has come up before and will come up again, so I will try to remember that one.
Thank you manehi and Pasquale
I like that Pasquale experience of deducing a nho from the wordplay as in PROLACTIN today. I knew the harrier, but thought there was an e at the end.
Re 16d
Can’t see that use = value
Alastair @12
Although harriers can hover, it isn’t their go-to mode of hunting.
[I have frequently seen Marsh Harriers, and when we were in Orkney we saw at least one Hen Harrier every day – including a male passing prey to a female in mid air!]
Stan Surgin@22: Think of the noun not the verb (you have to change your pronunciation) – “The dictionary is of some use/value to me”
thanks Pasquale for a gentle one after the weekend fun from Maskerade and the genius which is still baffling! And thanks manehi for working it all out so neatly.
Muffin@23
The only Harrier that can hover is the Northern which is limited to the USA, the only raptor that can hover in UK is the Kestrel.
(Hovering Harriers are VTOL aircraft used by the Royal Navy and the US Navy. Originally the UK built aircraft were named Kestrels as they could hover but once the US started to manufacture the name changed to Harrier, a much bigger US hovering raptor)
[We see a lot of Montagu’s here in the Pyrenees, very rare in UK. They are spectacular flyers when the males feed the females during breeding by throwing captured food into the air for the female to catch]
1 Down is potentially misleading. The diplomatic corps in any country is the totality of diplomats from other countries resident in (usually) the capital. The correct phrase for those representing their own (one) country abroad is diplomatic service.
Pleasant and gentle. Got all but one last night.
I write “applesauce” as one word. Is that American?
Thanks. Pasquale and manehi.
Precise clueing led to a surprising number of (for me) obscure solutions: 1a DAR ES SALAAM (like PhilB@16 I was first trying to shoehorn RIO DE JANEIRO in there), 11a PROLACTIN, 12a NYALA (after first trying NYASA), 13a RIAL, 16a BRIGANDAGE, 6d MONTAGU’S HARRIER. Pleased to get an unexpected completion. I also appreciated the consistently readable surfaces. Thanks both
21a MOCHA, could “that’s different” have been omitted to good effect?
NYALA seems to have become the crossword antelope recently. I suppose it’s a useful word for N?A?A.
muffin@29, Yes I have seen it before in a crossword, but I still had to dig it out of the recesses. As I mentioned @28 NYASA (ritual) also fit both the crossers and the wordplay (or nearly — the last A maybe unaccounted for)
About 35 years ago, I saw an impressive bird that seemed to rise vertically from a field very close to the side of the A52 somewhere between Derby and Stoke. I looked it up in one of my parents’ numerous bird books when I got back to Sussex and identified it as a Montagu’s Harrier. That has stayed with me, so I spotted it quite quickly here. Having also spotted DAR ES SALAAM and DIPLOMATIC CORPS quite early, I thought this might be a quick one, but no. It looks like the relatively easy SORT OUT was LOI.
We had NYALA in November and September, courtesy of Fed and Paul. I knew about them anyway.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi
Thanks Pasquale. As others have noted this was less of a challenge than Pasquale can be but it was just as satisfying to solve. Favourites included PROLACTIN, DIPLOMATIC CORPS, MOCHA, ADMONISH, and GLIMPSE. Thanks manehi for the blog.
Pleasant puzzle, rigorously clued. Nothing here was unfamiliar to me, luckily, though NYALA I only know from crosswords.
Valentine @27: ‘applesauce’ is indeed an American spelling, and a rather strange one – you never see ‘tomatosauce’ or ‘cranberrysauce’
Thanks to Pasquale and manehi
Cliveinfrance @25, muffin @23. Indeed, I thought on a brief earlier vsiit, before my WiFi went down again, as it has been doing for the last week, that Alastair @12 had been bloody lucky if he had seen a MONTAGU’S hover – in part because they don’t and in part because they are exceedingly rare in the UK – just a handful of breeding pairs. What he saw was almost certainly a kestrel, or a ‘windhover’, as Gerard Manley Hopkins called it:
I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, …
That’s my literary titbit before I am forced offline again. My provider says that they hope to have the (local) problem fixed by this time tomorrow. Ho, hum.
I agree with Xerxes@11 about the parsing of CLEAVE, but it’s moot. I’ve seen a Montagu’s Harrier in Charente, where my brother lives, so that anagram was a bit of a 19a-in for me.
I got a bit stuck in the SW corner and bunged in BOCUSE and COCOA, which have the benefit of being an award and a drink, respectively, but are otherwise totally wrong. 😜
I got BRIGANDAGE from definition and crossers, but lacked the patience to unpack the parsing.
Thanks to Pasquale and Manehi.
Great puzzle, enjoyed the Montagus Harrier, which sadly has all but disappeared from the UK as a breeding bird over recent years. A quick question…did I miss an Easter crossword, or has that approach been discontinued? I subscribe to the e-paper, so would have missed a paper only puzzle.
Good long anagrams today. A bit surprised Pasquale didn’t use 19a in SHOOT UP. 19 sheep increase dramatically perhaps?
Use of academy in 4d suggested West Ham at first before the Arse appeared. No major hold-ups overall.
Fine birdie clue. It only rang bells for me after the Harrier part had been separated, AlanC.
Solid puzzle. Thanks, P&m.
Simon S @8: but Halie Selassie was not a Rastafarian. He was Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, I believe, and was in fact a bit nonplussed by the Jamaican religion named after him.
Birdfossil
Try this
You will ned to print out the pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2026/apr/04/guardian-cryptic-crossword-easter-special-2026
Did this while listening to ARSENAL v Sporting. A good omen? I got the Harrier as soon as I had the m of 1ac. Never seen one but several Marsh Harriers.
Birdfossil@36 There was a Maskarade Easter special and a prize in the paper with the answers for the special on the same page.
Mrpenney @4 I don’t believe for an instant that Pasquale is relieved that you have let him ‘off the hook’. Every day, the Guardian gives us a free crossword, and every day there is someone who has to purse their lips and their sphincters in petty disapproval. It’s tiresome.
I’m another who bunged in NYASA. I have to say, that I find zoology never-heard-ofs one of the least fascinating of things to research, and for some reason land animals more than fish, particularly South American rodents.
However, that’s just me, and this was, as usual from Pasquale, a jolly good puzzle.
Cheers everyone.
I always feel good managing to complete a Pasquale and same for this one, although it took me a good few visits to get there. Lots of great and long anagrams to get some traction and very precise clueing of charades and the rest. A few obscure answers in there but all in all a fun puzzle. Thanks Pasquale and manehi.
Thanks Cliveinfrance. Much appreciated 😀
First time I’ve seen BEM for honour, it’s usually OBE or MBE.
Jack of Few Trades@24
Thanks. And “doh”!
I enjoyed this, and don’t want to undermine my appreciation for Pasquale with the following bit of pedantry, but …
Isn’t the Diplomatic Corps the collective body of diplomats representing *all* the countries with which the host country has relations? So in Berlin, for example, that would be the diplomatic staffs of around 150 missions. The collective group for all the e.g. Belgian diplomats worldwide would be the diplomatic *service* of Belgium. This might be closer to Pasquale’s definition.
The Belgian diplomats based in Berlin would be members of the Belgian diplomatic service, but would also be the members of the diplomatic corps in Berlin representing Belgium.
Thanks manehi, I found that tricky!