Crossword 10

Six-letter answers set the pace: STAPLE, UPHILL, ARCADE, REALLY, ADVICE and SPIRAL, with nothing longer anywhere in the grid. Forty-eight black squares and sixty-two clues, evenly spread.

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354
Show the answer key
1S2O3B4S5O6A7P8S9T10APLE11U12PHILL13ARCADE14REALLY15WARD16NAP17PEE18L19S20E21B22B23S24EE25L26USUAL27S28E29T30TAI31LS32DRY33ARI34AS35PIE36PANS37TR38A39P40S41S42A43Y44ROO45F46A47D48VICE49S50PIRAL51ROASTS52PASTRY53TENT54ATE

What is on this sheet

Grid
13 × 13
Clues
62
Black squares
48
Longest answer
6

Across

  1. 1. To cry with short catches of breath
  2. 4. What you wash your hands with
  3. 8. The little metal pin that holds pages together
  4. 11. Going up a slope, and hard work
  5. 13. A noisy hall full of coin-operated games
  6. 14. Truly, and no exaggeration
  7. 15. A room in a hospital with several beds
  8. 16. A short sleep in the afternoon
  9. 17. Strips the skin from a piece of fruit
  10. 20. Flows back out to sea
  11. 24. A long fish shaped like a snake
  12. 26. What normally happens
  13. 27. A group of things that belong together
  14. 30. What dogs wag when they are pleased
  15. 32. With no water in it at all
  16. 33. Songs for one voice in an opera
  17. 35. A dish baked with pastry over the top
  18. 36. Metal dishes used on top of the stove
  19. 37. Devices set to catch animals
  20. 41. To speak words out loud
  21. 44. What keeps the rain off a house
  22. 46. What you give someone who asks what to do
  23. 49. A curve that winds round and round
  24. 51. Cooks a joint of meat in the oven
  25. 52. The dough that makes a pie crust
  26. 53. The cloth shelter you sleep in when camping
  27. 54. Had a meal, yesterday

Down

  1. 1. What you dig the garden with
  2. 2. Having lasted a great many years
  3. 3. A striped insect that makes honey
  4. 4. Squares, circles and triangles, for example
  5. 5. Slippery liquid used for cooking or for engines
  6. 6. Every last one, with none left out
  7. 7. A layer of wood glued to another
  8. 8. A toothed blade for cutting wood
  9. 9. A device set to catch an animal
  10. 10. A unit of land, a little smaller than a football pitch
  11. 11. A large vase with a lid
  12. 12. A small round green vegetable
  13. 18. Allows something to happen
  14. 19. The salt water that covers most of the world
  15. 21. A flower before it opens
  16. 22. A long straight piece of metal
  17. 23. Clever in a sneaky sort of way
  18. 25. The soft edge of your mouth
  19. 26. The person who works a machine or a program
  20. 27. The sticky juice inside a tree
  21. 28. A long stretch of history with a name of its own
  22. 29. A metal container that keeps food for years
  23. 31. Set alight, or filled with light
  24. 34. To help with what somebody else is doing
  25. 38. To get up, or to come about unexpectedly
  26. 39. A harbour where ships tie up
  27. 40. To fly high without any effort
  28. 42. To do something, or one part of a play
  29. 43. The opposite of no
  30. 45. To move through the air
  31. 46. Painting, drawing and sculpture together
  32. 47. A female deer or rabbit
  33. 48. A boxy vehicle for carrying goods
  34. 49. A place people go to bathe and relax
  35. 50. To touch gently with a flat hand

About this puzzle

Thirteen by thirteen, with the black squares in rotational symmetry: turn the sheet upside down and the pattern is the same one. Every white square belongs to an across answer and to a down answer, so every letter can be worked out two ways — which is what separates a crossword from a grid with words dropped into it. The clues were all written by hand, one for each answer, and the filled grid prints on the second page.

More like this one