This crossword can be found at https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2026/04/03/Guardian_cryptic_crossword_Easter_special_2026.pdf
On Thursday 2nd April the Spectator published a crossword by Doc which involved 10 unclued six-letter words that could be made into a chain using as the first three letters the last three letters of another word. On Saturday 4th April the Guardian publishes a mega crossword by Maskarade (another pseudonym of Doc’s and the regular holiday mega-setter) using the same device with 35 unspecified lights, all clued but only some defined. At least three items in the chain were identical in each case: clearly Doc/Maskarade has become ecologically minded and started recycling his material … Even so, it takes skill to join 35 words into such a daisy chain: maybe the setter just liked the idea and decided to expand it.
In full the rubric states: Thirty-five six-letter words or phrases can be arranged to form a chain, the last three letters of one word giving the first three of the next. Fifteen of these clues include a definition; 20 do not. They are presented in alphabetical order of their entries and must be fitted into the grid, jigsaw-fashion. As always with unclued-light crosswords, one has to solve virtually all the clued solutions before seeing where to fit those with no defined destination. And, as usual, there are clusters of answers of unspecified location which make this task difficult … but with a bit of trial and error it became possible to see light at the end of the tunnel. Having unlocated solutions in alphabetical order helped to create a list of them, even though many were undefined. The chain is at the end of this post. Definitions, where given, are underlined.
Across
11 Extremely tense learner crossing Shropshire town (7)
TELFORD
TE (extremes of TENSE) + L (learner) + FORD (crossing)
12 Plan lunch, but some rejected bone (4)
ULNA
Hidden (some) in plAN LUnch reversed (rejected)
16 Average May Day, love (2-2)
SO-SO
SOS (May-Day) + O (love)
20 Medic sidles up and clears away (7)
DREDGES
DR (medic) + EDGES (sidles up)
24 Priority system for two-thirds of geriatric round (6)
TRIAGE
Anagram (round) of GEriATRIc (two-thirds of geriatric)
32 If it is true, it can be swapped for cheese ingredient (6)
CASEIN
IN CASE (if it is true) reversed (can be swapped)
33 Valuable resources from state coffer, unendingly (6)
RICHES
RI (Rhode Island – state) + CHES (chest, unendingly)
37 Little dog with bushy head of hair returning (3)
POM
Reverse (returning) of MOP (bushy head of hair)
39 Bitmap image of half the design in retrospect (3)
GIF
Half of FIGure (design) reversed (in retrospect)
50 Barrow-boys have no time for social workers (6)
CARERS
CARTERS (barrow-boys) without the T (no time)
55 Many set free, thus? (7)
AMNESTY
&lit. Anagram (free) of MANY SET. THUS giving the reason for freeing
59 Empty zone with relation where females are secluded (6)
ZENANA
ZE (zone, empty) + NANA (relation)
60 Some drinks at a golf match, more or less (6)
AROUND
A ROUND can be some drinks or part of a golf match
61 Upset priest starts to use rude language (4)
PURL
P (priest) + first letters (starts to) of Use Rude Language. To purl (which I only knew from my mother’s knitting) means to capsize or upturn (third definition in Chambers)
63 Go and complain having lost a cup (6)
GOBLET
GO + BLEaT – bleat (complain) having lost A
65 State expressions of pain and grief (4)
OHIO
OH (expression of pain) + IO (expression of grief)
66 Mystery a peculiar vessel contained (7)
ARCANUM
A + RUM (peculiar) around (contained) CAN (vessel)
68 Legal official’s name on seal (6)
NOTARY
N (name) + OTARY – a seal with ears, such aa a sealion
Down
3 Track’s repeated rhythms (6)
GROOVE
Double definition: both coming from an LP ….
8 Pastry first seen in Polynesian island group (6)
SAMOSA
S (first seen) inside SAMOA
9 Long and limp Scottish seaweed (6)
TANGLE
Double definition: an adjective used in Scottish for long and limp + coarse seaweed
10 Lavish spreads, having fine food, swallowing seconds (6)
FEASTS
F (fine) + EATS (food) around (containing) S (seconds)
19 Historic site put up gargantuan houses (4)
AGRA
Hidden (houses) in gARGAntuan reversed (put up, in a down clue). Agra is the city housing the Taj Mahal
21 Perhaps shamans and I cross River Exe, floundering (10)
EXORCISERS
Anagram (floundering) of I +CROSS + R (river) + EXE. Definition: a minor order in the Roman Catholic church
22 Dynamic types with energy moving later plant (5)
GORSE
GOERS (dynamic types) with E (energy) moving later
23 Shipping area – could be Dover? (4)
SOLE
Reference to the Dover sole fish. Sole is an area in the shipping forecast in the SW, near Lundy, Plymouth, Fastnet
26 How winds may blow in Lebanon, poet admits (9)
SOUTHERLY
The poet is clearly Southey, a Victorian who was Poet Laureate from 1813 till his death in 1843, despite there being far greater poets around. The country code for Lebanon is LB: not sure where the RL inside Southey comes from …
27 Likely location of flying ptarmigans with temperature dropped (9)
GRAMPIANS
Anagram (flying) of PARMIGANS – ptarmigans without (dropped) T (temperature)
28 Racecourse animals at home in ceremonial roll-outs (3,7)
RED CARPETS
REDCAR (Racecourse) + PETS (animals at home)
32 Prince Philip’s birthplace is – my goodness – half-full (5)
CORFU
COR (my goodness!) + FU (half of full). The late HRH Prince Philip was born in Corfu
34 Brief period of enchantment (5)
SPELL
Double definition
43 Stock Exchange certificate St Paul found now and again (5)
TALON
Alternate letters (found now and again) of sT pAuL fOuNd. A talon (Chambers tells me) is a detachable printed part of a Stock Exchange certificate
44 Three different blood groups, maybe, or one group (4)
ABBA
AB, B and A are different blood groups
46 Spanish region without success in knitwear (4)
ARAN
ARAGON without GO (success – in Chambers, 7 lines from the end). Aran is a style of knitwear that originated in the Aran Islands – made famous by Robert Flaherty in Man of Aran)
52 Small nut cut for fish (6)
SALMON
S (small) + ALMON (almond cut)
53 County Down’s top store refitted (6)
DORSET
D (Down’s top) + anagram (refitted) of STORE
56 During springtime, a greenhouse is poorly supplied (6)
MEAGRE
Hidden (during) in springtiME A GREenhouse
Word chain
A cut, no different from usual (2,4)
AS EVER (4a)
A + SEVER (cut)
Drinks in A&E (2,4)
AT EASE (17a)
TEAS in A +E
In punt, a couple of lines for historic song (6)
BALLET (48a)
In BE T (punt) A + LL (two lines). Definition (in Chambers under ballad): a historic word for a madrigal
Unfeeling, nothing less (6)
CALLUS (50d)
CALLOUS without O – (nothing)
Exuberant, keeping husband back a lot? So crude (6)
EARTHY (62a)
HEARTY with H (husband) kept back a lot
Close attention for charm (6)
ENDEAR (54d)
END (close) + EAR (attention)
Crumpled notepaper Poe’s thrown away (6)
ENTRAP (57d)
Anagram (crumpled) of NoTePApER – notepaper without (thrown away) Poe
Artist swapping sides (6)
INGLES (19d)
INGRES (artist) with L instead of R (swapping sides)
King’s College on edge of Cambridge (6)
KETONE (49d)
K (King) + ETON (college) + E – last letter (edge) of Cambridge
Inferior alternative (6)
LESSOR (67a)
LESS (inferior) + OR (alternative)
C, say, for correspondence (6)
LETTER (1d)
Double definition
Five years’ distinction (6)
LUSTRE (40a)
Double definition
Fellows chat endlessly (6)
MENTAL (14a)
MEN (fellows) + TALk (chat – endlessly)
52 with carp’s innards (6)
MORTAR (38d)
MORT (a young salmon – see 52) + AR, inner letters of CARP
Awaited the arrival, holding flower (6)
MUSKET (64a)
MET (awaited the arrival) around (holding) USK -river (flow-er in crossword jargon)
Most distant Scottish cottage room (6)
OFFEND (2d)
OFF (most distant) + END – at the very end, Chambers offers a definition of a Scottish cottage room. I was brought up in a cottage in the Highlands and never heard a room referred to as an end …
Soon perspire regularly (6)
ONESIE (41a)
Alternate letters (regularly) of sOoN pErSpIrE. Definition – a garment beloved of crossword setters – a one-piece bathing suit
Transported soldiers (6)
RAPTOR (51d)
RAPT (transported) + OR (soldiers)
Some bounder – a scallywag! (6)
RASCAL (36a)
Hidden in boundeR A SCALlywag
Assembly of characters from Tralee (6)
RELATE (33d)
Anagram (assembly of characters) of TRALEE
Up in part of Yorkshire (6)
RIDING (25d)
Double definition, the first meaning riding as on horseback
Booked heroine turning up after game (6)
RUSSET (7d)
SSET – TESS (booked heroine, reversed – turning up in down clue) after RU (Rugby Union)
Note that’s part of auction (6)
SALUTE (18A)
UT (what was formerly doh) inside (part of) SALE (auction)
Start a journey in contrast (3,3)
SET OFF (8a)
Double definition
In Germany they sat about, resting? (6)
SIESTA (5d)
SIE (they in German) + STA – anagram (about) of SAT
Steamroller dismantled, metal components thrown out (6)
SORREL (30a)
Anagram (dismantled) of StEamROLleR – steamroller, without letters (bits) of metal
Station loo-sign? (6)
STAMEN (35a)
STA (short for station) + MEN (loo-sign)
Story books (6)
TALENT (47a)
TALE (story) + NT (New Testament – books)
Bone in foot of male hawk (6)
TARSAL (45a)
Double definition: an alternative to tercel (male hawk) and referring to tarsus, bone in the foot
Rarest form of volcanic fragments (6)
TERRAS (13a)
Anagram (form) of RAREST. I can’t find a reference for the volcanic fragments , which are usually known as tephra …
Lengthy musical extract getting it in the neck (6)
THYMUS (58D)
Hidden (extract) in lengTHY MUSical. The thymus is a gland in the lower neck
Against clergyman’s title and identity (6)
TORRID (31a)
TO (against) + RR (Right Rev – clergyman) + ID (identity)
Does it come from the epicentre, more usually? (6)
TREMOR (15a)
&lit. Hidden in epicenTRE MORe
Oz vehicle with corrosion, mostly (6)
UTERUS (42a)
UTE (an Australian utility vehicle + RUS (rust, mostly)
Abuse when overbalancing somewhat (6)
VERBAL (6d)
Hidden (somewhat) in oVERBALancing
The chain, beginning with 4a, reads AS EVER, VERBAL, BALLET, LETTER, TERRAS, RASCAL, CALLUS, LUSTRE, TREMOR, MORTAR, TARSAL, SALUTE, UTERUS, RUSSET, SET OFF, OFFEND, ENDEAR, EARTHY, THYMUS, MUSKET, KETONE, ONESIE, SIESTA, STAMEN, MENTAL, TALENT, ENTRAP, RAPTOR, TORRID, RIDING, INGLES, LESSOR, SORREL, RELATE, AT EASE, AS EVER ….
I enjoyed what I could manage of this, though some parts I had never heard of and the alternative meanings did not show by simply looking for the definitions ( lustre = 5 years, ut = note etc)
So many thanks, Maskerade and prospero for the explanations
26ac RL is the Lebanese vehicle registration code, standing for République libanaise (I think). Thank you Maskerade for an enjoyable and varied puzzle, and Prospero for the concise explanations.
This was a really enjoyable challenge; the skeleton of numbered lights made it more accessible than a completely jigsaw special.
I didn’t help myself by putting in Caches instead of RICHES which held me up a bit.
I agree with Pongsnail @2 about RL which in in Chambers as the IVR code for Lebanon. LB is the IVR code for Liberia.
TERRAS can be found under the headword Trass in Chambers:….
trass
noun
An earthy volcanic tuff used as a hydraulic cement (also tarras or terras)
Lots of fun though my solve involved a fair bit of looking things up and googling some of the more elusive solutions. The daisy chain idea was well-executed and I enjoyed that part of putting things together a great deal. Thanks Maskarade and prospero.
I think in 24 the anagram is just of the first 6 letters (2/3) of GERIATric, not as you have it prospero.
Ingres and Ingles are both artists, so that one was rather unclear as to which was meant until the chain resolved itself.
All in all great fun with a few extensions to my crossword vocabulary.
Thanks to Maskarade and prospero.
Thanks for the blog , it must have been a lot of work .
I thought this was just right for a Special , some cold-solving , an alphabetiacal jigsaw plus the bonus of the daisy chain . Lots of space at the top of the page so I started three chains which eventually combined , this idea was very helpful giving three letters of a new answer plus a rough position in the list .
Further to Tim@4 , Chambers93 has TERRAS . See under trass .
Thank you for the detailed blog.
I didn’t have time to get close to finishing this puzzle, but I really enjoyed constructing the chain and found this device useful and amusing.
Started off having fun with this puzzle which was a great construction, but then realised that the solution was printed upside down at the bottom of the page. For some reason that dampened my interest for a while, made it seem less of a serious challenge. However, I managed to get back to it later and finish it off.
Thanks Maskerade and Prospero.
I think this was the most enjoyable Maskarade holiday jumbo we have had. Always a treat to do with daughter. I’m pleased to see it seems to have gone down well. 😊
As a general point I do wish solutions were not printed on the same page as the puzzle. Upside down or not, I catch sight of them and take in some of the answers. Whinge over.
Thanks Maskarade and prospero.
Thank you for the comments and apologies for the typo in 52d, now corrected. You’re right, of course, Graham in Sydney, about geriatric. I was misled in 26d by LB being the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code. Should have remembered the RL but I was last in Lebanon in 1969 – when it was still possible to stage shows peaceably …
Like Tim@4, our household also had CACHES originally, instead of RICHES. California instead of Rhode Island. Because of the jigsaw element with the 6-letter answers, it was a long time – a goodly long time – before the error was spotted.
Also, as Graham@6 has pointed out, we were unsure whether it was INGRES or INGLES, but at least there we could see there was an alternative.
All this, however, just added to the general fun. What had started out feeling almost like too much of a slog to be worth the effort, ended up being enormously entertaining – so thank you Maskarade, and thanks too to prospero for a masterly blog.
At first I thought I hadn’t a hope. Especially since there was no way of knowing which of the chain clues had a definition.
Anyway I started with the non-chain clues and gradually worked up to getting about three quarters of these.
Then I started to look at the chain clues. I made a list of 1 to 35 to help me (since Maskarade said they were in alphabetical order) and the first one I got was SORREL, number 26. I then got a few more and started looking for answers that began with the last three letters of the ones I had got.
Took ages but to my amazement, helped by knowing that each chain answer gave me the beginning and end three letters of remaining answers and that they were in alphabeticaI order, I finally got them all although not all were parsed.
Started putting the chain clues in the grid and managed to finish including solving the non-chain clues I hadn’t got before.
Was amazed I did it. (Did use lots of help. And not all were parsed)
Favourites were: TELFORD (FOI), SORREL, RED CARPETS, CALLUS, RAPTOR, UTERUS, SIESTA, ONESIE, RUSSET, ARCANUM
Spent several very pleasant hours on Saturday and Sunday completing the puzzle.
Thanks Maskarade and prospero – was very glad to see the blog as there were 6 of the numbered clues and 7 of the chain clues I had not managed to parse.
Great blog, Prospero, thanks for your work. Interesting that you mention the Spectator puzzle which preceded this one by two days. The Spectator puzzle has “unbroken chain” in the preamble which I think is helpful as “chain” on its own might imply something linear. The Spectator did feel like a warm up in retrospect but there’s more to said about that puzzle that when the blog appears.
Great fun, thanks to Maskarade and Prospero.
I managed to complete this, although some of the alternative definitions e.g. ut went by me, the chain allowed me to work out the answers even without quite seeing why. Many had to be looked up – zenana, ing(r)les, lustre = 5 years. Completely failed to understand offend and purl. Very enjoyable. Thanks to Maskarade and Prospero.
Ut = note?
This took me and my wife a whole week to complete with several unparsed!
Thanks to Maskarade and Prospero.
Rob@16
Worth remembering UT as it crops up from time to time.
Chambers says…
“A syllable representing the first note of the scale, now generally superseded by doh”.
In fact it appeared in another Guardian puzzle a few days later… but that one is still live so I’ll say no more.
This was right up my street – half cryptic crossword, half logic puzzle – and I thought it was very well pitched. I made full use of the fact that having end letters of special words gave you starting letters of others which needed to fit into the alphabetical list.
Faves were GRAMPIAN and the booked heroine.
I had to cheat a little to get the grid filled, most notably looking up full answers for the two NHOs TELFORD and SOUTHErlY, without which I didn’t have enough checkers to guide the jigsaw. I also used a word finder for the equally nho ARCANUM and ZENANA. But on such a big puzzle, I wasn’t disheartened by using help to move forward; it was a thoroughly enjoyable solving experience.
I didn’t find it necessary to solve lots of the special clues to start filling the jigsaw grid; I lazily hoped that a “greedy algorithm” would work, bunging in the solutions I had wherever there was a minimum of two checkers in the grid which matched. Very skillful of Maskerade to make that largely possible! I only slipped up by putting CALLUS where INGLES should have gone (based on the L and S) which meant I got snookered at the very end. I figured it out though with a nice sense of satisfaction.
I needed the blog for confirmation of a number of parsings or definition look-ups: PURL, ohIO (expression of grief ???), OTARY, TANGLE (thank goodness for the Brendan puzzle which featured the same word, which I had done first), SOLE (shipping forecast), INGrES, MORT, mUSKet, offEND and salUTe… which rather showed up my vocabulary gaps. Other hunches I looked up (TARSAL -> TERCEL for example).
There aren’t many comments here so far; I hope it’s only because it wasn’t clear when the blog would arrive. I think it’s great to publish the blog a week later, even if the answers are in the paper on the same day. I at least need plenty of time to keep dipping in, for a puzzle of this size and scope.
Thanks both
Like Julie in Australia I ended up googling some of the more impenetrable solutions after two or three days when my enthusiasm started to wane. I had printed off the pdf version and worked on that without ever looking at the newspaper version again so I didn’t even notice the solution was printed upside down, lol. Another fine effort from Maskarade though and requiring much more thought than his occasional 225 puzzles. As usual I found myself longing for a more coherent grid with one or two longer solutions, but that’s nit-picking so ignore me. What I did think was a bit iffy though was the lack of definitions for some of the word-chain, considering that most of these had to be solved cold before it was possible to start slotting them into the grid. Thanks to prospero and to Maskarade
Thanks, Maskarade (and prospero) – this was such fun. Looking back at my copy of the Guardian, I see I even managed to parse all the clues, which I only fully cross off when I’ve done so. Solving the last few in the daisy chain was greatly helped by being able to check which last three letters of clues I had solved hadn’t yet been deployed – I doubt I’d have solved KETONE otherwise as I’d never heard of it. It seemed such a tangle when I’d finished that I wasn’t convinced the chain worked until I wrote it out – very impressive.
Thankfully, the way I folded the newspaper so I could see all the clues meant I didn’t even notice that the solution was printed below and just thought the Prize crossword was a pleasant bonus. I wonder if the G could be persuaded not to do this?
Wonderful, wonderful crossword. Please if anyone is listening can we have more word chains. Kept us going for a good week and all the weird words are in Chambers, or certainly in my old edition. Zenana, mort, io, tarsal for hawk, end for cottage (and interesting that it’s current slang too for gaff), the only clue that finally beat us was T_N_LE, viz tangle meaning both seaweed and long and limp. But just terrific Doc!
Well that was fun. It’s taken me a week but I got there in the end with a fair amount of internet help. Nho zenana or mort for salmon. Also never knew that lustre was five years. Luckily I never noticed the answer on the same page – note to Guardian editor DON’T DO THAT AGAIN.
Favourite RED CARPETS.
Many thanks to Maskarade and prospero.
This took me ages – and I’d be interested to know how long it took Masquerade to create it. There were several I couldn’t parse and, as the solution was provided on the day, I wasn’t expecting to ever find it all explained on this site. Many, many thanks to Prospero. I am still wondering, though, why IO is an expression of grief. What am I missing?
This took me ages – and I’d be interested to know how long it took Maskarade to create it. There were several I couldn’t parse and, as the solution was provided on the day, I wasn’t expecting to ever find it all explained on this site. Many, many thanks to Prospero. I am still wondering, though, why IO is an expression of grief. What am I missing?
Rather belatedly, due to circumstances mentioned in other posts, we would like to add our thanks and admiration for the work done by Maskarade in constructing this enjoyable and entertaining masterpiece of mischief and for prospero’s comprehensive blog. We eventually finished, despite initial misgivings, but were strictly dnf with a couple of errors and an incomplete parse! Our only quibble would be why INGLES is not counted as a definition (making sixteen such) since it is only obtained by having Ingres known as another artist?
An amazingly good puzzle. Thank you Maskarade. As good as Easter Araucarias in the past. Just wish my mum had still been alive to do it with her.
Finally finished this, with the help of OneLook and lots of paper. Good to check some couldn’t-work-it-outs here, thanks prospero!
We came to this late, but what a fantastic puzzle it was! For me, the best solves are the ones you can come at from different angles – when one angle dries up, try another and hopefully find success there. Thank you, Maskarade for one of the best specials I remember and also to Prospero for the long and thorough blog.
I didn’t complete this and entirely forgot about the chain, but enjoyed the puzzle hugely and the explanatory blog just as much. Thank you!
Re ut (couldn’t resist): it is the original name of the first note, later changed to doh which is easier to sing. It is therefore now the only note in sol-fa which doesn’t correspond to either a syllable or an acrostic of the Latin hymn from which the note names were originally drawn. I think Guido d’Arezzo who invented the system woild have loved crosswords.
It was a very good puzzle and fun to solve.
I was very disappointed that this wasn’t a prize crossword – to go to all the effort then find right at the end the answers were printed on the same page was galling. They did the same at Xmas but I assumed then it was just a logistical problem related to organisational changes or something. Another holiday tradition ruined, Araucaria will be turning in his grave! (I exaggerate but it just seems insensitive to treat special puzzles in this way)