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Birds, beasts and relatives



Note For the purposes of this quiz, fish do not count as beasts.

  1. Sob in distress (5) Show Answer
  2. Misguided love (4) Show Answer
  3. Stretch one’s neck (5) Show Answer
  4. Paddington on a bad day? (7,4) Show Answer
  5. ‘I went heavily, as one that mourneth for his ____’ (Psalm 35, BCP)(6) Show Answer
  6. Might be little, long-eared, snowy . . . (3) Show Answer
  7. . . . or type of bird (9) Show Answer
  8. Lightweight (5) Show Answer
  9. ‘Commanding officer’ (American) in a European language (6-6) Show Answer
  10. Treads underfoot (7) Show Answer
  11. Nelly? (8) Show Answer
  12. Quiet part of flower (7) Show Answer
  13. Fantastic tuna – fantastic! (5-4) Show Answer
  14. ‘The Beginning of Summer’ is related (6) Show Answer
  15. STAMATUTE (6-2-3) Show Answer
  16. Architect (4) Show Answer
  17. Maltese? (6) Show Answer
  18. Fatherly pawnbroker (8,5) Show Answer
  19. Such words are deceptive (6) Show Answer
  20. Encourage man in religious order (6-7) Show Answer
  21. Plaything on a string (4) Show Answer
  22. Not so cold, but without aspiration (5) Show Answer
  23. Take in, or be taken in by (7) Show Answer
  24. SIS (4-6) Show Answer
  25. Katharina? (5) Show Answer
  26. Old French measure on hill (8) Show Answer
  27. Head of bank going for a walk (9) Show Answer
  28. Punish favourite (7) Show Answer
  29. 10-0, it’s said, in return match (6) Show Answer
  30. Listen to a description, and you’ll find the answer there (4) Show Answer
  31. Rummage (6) Show Answer
  32. Poor crop raised in east (9) Show Answer
  33. Lion, say, on perch? (7) Show Answer
  34. Disorganised choir so near, but article not written (10) Show Answer
  35. Undoing nothing, a puzzle (9) Show Answer
  36. The best are out of alignment (10) Show Answer
  37. Meddle with type of wrench? (6) Show Answer
  38. An ungulate? Partly, if one looks back (3) Show Answer
  39. Benefit for a graduate (6) Show Answer
  40. Drama produced, not well, but with love (9) Show Answer
  41. Tool not used by women? (8) Show Answer
  42. My French bird (8) Show Answer
  43. Put another way, it’s roamed dry (9) Show Answer
  44. Opening constructed without a single note (6) Show Answer
  45. That’s big! (7) Show Answer
  46. Dissolute vice leads to start of trouble (5) Show Answer
  47. City where Joshua was defeated (2) Show Answer
  48. Schoolchildren out for a walk (9) Show Answer
  49. Nuts or bananas (6) Show Answer
  50. ‘It was the ____, and not the lark’ (Romeo and Juliet) (11)Show Answer

Comic Creations


  1. Sailor with a taste for spinach (6)Show Answer
  2. Has he been up the chimney? (5)Show Answer
  3. Herb not working, we hear (5,6)Show Answer
  4. Hebridean cloth (6,5)Show Answer
  5. The Owl of the Remove (5,6)Show Answer
  6. She liked her epitaphs deranged! (3,8)Show Answer
  7. A station to endure (10,4)Show Answer
  8. Mr Thatcher putting on the frighteners, as you might say (6,3,6)Show Answer
  9. Sounds like a one-off (5)Show Answer
  10. Powerful pawnbroker in Eastern Europe (5-5,8)Show Answer
  11. Wandering, Mr James, you say? There’s nothing following behind (8,3,5)Show Answer
  12. Victoria when young? (6,4)Show Answer
  13. Piper’s son with German in wartime (3,3,5)Show Answer
  14. Woman by lake loved Crete, after a fashion (4,9,2,8)Show Answer
  15. Article to criticise abandoned children (3,4,6,4)Show Answer
  16. Plant broom (5,5)Show Answer
  17. Officer to pinch star? That’s crazy! (7,9)Show Answer
  18. Shoot the cat (7)Show Answer
  19. Hopeless at judo level (9,3)Show Answer
  20. Juan’s lady and I get organised about note (6,3,5)Show Answer
  21. The Curse of St Custard’s (5,10)Show Answer
  22. Elderly relative of Mr Giles (7)Show Answer
  23. 2 ennobled and acquiring name (4,6)Show Answer
  24. Workers on river (8)Show Answer
  25. Legendary king with unproductive acreage (6,11)Show Answer
  26. Guarantee to exchange drugs for silver and mix well (9)Show Answer
  27. Fruitcake from Greater Manchester (6)Show Answer
  28. Alias ‘Mr Artist’, having a drink (8,6)Show Answer
  29. Ascetic to give birth (4,4)Show Answer
  30. Sir Pelham Grenville’s butler (6)Show Answer
  31. Mr Campbell, get down! (6,4)Show Answer
  32. Gloomy summer? (10)Show Answer
  33. Two rivers, not well, but coming to nothing in the end (3,7)Show Answer
  34. Mr Novello as train driver? (4,3,6)Show Answer
  35. Singer in defter arrangement (4,6)Show Answer
  36. He’s in the process of decomposition! (5)Show Answer
  37. Flower number 9 (7)Show Answer
  38. Beget a young troublemaker in the fifties (6,3)Show Answer
  39. Frances Fish (5,7)Show Answer
  40. Lead the side, having degree in conflict, holding on to a mixed gin! (7,10)Show Answer
  41. Member of the flock with a haircut, by the sound of it (5,3,5)Show Answer
  42. Nicer bananas (from the north?)Show Answer
  43. I loan dream to be interpreted (6,4)Show Answer
  44. Fish meadow (8)Show Answer
  45. Evil eye on source of metal (6)Show Answer
  46. Field marshal with snake (5,6)Show Answer
  47. Wilde’s handbag woman! (4,9)Show Answer
  48. Specialist in low comedy? (6)Show Answer
  49. Skipper has dog to clean up (7,7)Show Answer
  50. Father of James and John (7)Show Answer

Drinks all round


  1. Article on famous clown (5)Show Answer
  2. Chocolate biscuit with this …? (7)Show Answer
  3. … and cake with this? (7)Show Answer
  4. Cartel broken up (6)Show Answer
  5. Torment mixed with bile, maybe (6,5)Show Answer
  6. Get bigger and bigger (8)Show Answer
  7. Reformed, quit ale – for this? (7)Show Answer
  8. A grain’s processed here (7)Show Answer
  9. Newcastle? (4)Show Answer
  10. Sterne’s eponymous hero (6)Show Answer
  11. Cast about to go astray (6)Show Answer
  12. Transformation of mortal with drug for adult (6)Show Answer
  13. Back inside, prepared ice-cream for tea (5)Show Answer
  14. Letter to an opponent (7)Show Answer
  15. Field (4)Show Answer
  16. Cautious about girl (10)Show Answer
  17. Soul returns in state (4)Show Answer
  18. That’s champion, Fred! (5)Show Answer
  19. Within forge, a thin piece of metal (6)Show Answer
  20. Charlie succeeds in song (9)Show Answer
  21. ‘Sir Joseph! Carry your bags, sir?’ (6)Show Answer
  22. The Ethiopian King Arthur (5)Show Answer
  23. Town in America and German youth leader (8)Show Answer
  24. Made in north-east Reading (9)Show Answer
  25. Lodge for a time with Uncle? (4)Show Answer
  26. A snare for the unwary (3)Show Answer
  27. Heads of businesses report also at beginning of year (6)Show Answer
  28. Make the chauffeur suffer! (11)Show Answer
  29. Money to start with (5)Show Answer
  30. Make the most of exploit (4)Show Answer
  31. Short gospel – can I follow? (7)Show Answer
  32. A light two-wheeled carriage (6)Show Answer
  33. In ancient Israel, between Dan and Sheba (4)Show Answer
  34. Bouncer? (8)Show Answer
  35. Spoil Georgia and another girl? (9)Show Answer
  36. ‘Cognac, ____, 23 and Beaune’ (Flanders & Swann) (8)Show Answer
  37. What’s happened still exists (6)Show Answer
  38. Found in one who has a keen sense of humour (4)Show Answer
  39. Nod off after school, before adding an afterthought (8)Show Answer
  40. Confused doctor, artist and father! (6)Show Answer
  41. Rush around with bottle-opener (5)Show Answer
  42. Ban soft fabric (5,6)Show Answer
  43. Eccentric … (3)Show Answer
  44. … overweight … (5)Show Answer
  45. … stick-in-the-mud … (3-9)Show Answer
  46. … Dutch lawyer (8)Show Answer
  47. Mingle the elements at random (9)Show Answer
  48. Designed the basin (8)Show Answer
  49. Unexpectedly nastier, … (7)Show Answer
  50. … made from the demon ale! (8)Show Answer

Plants, real and fictional


  1. Where the money’s made (4)Show Answer
  2. Ivy’s friend with a bottle of wine (9)Show Answer
  3. Melancholy beauty we hear (8)Show Answer
  4. He admired himself too much (9)Show Answer
  5. Avalanche? (8)Show Answer
  6. Spoil one who gets first prize (8) Show Answer
  7. Article on cat, say, at college (7)Show Answer
  8. Whale concealed itself (6)Show Answer
  9. Blake’s was weary of time (9)Show Answer
  10. Reprimand for a high-flyer (6)Show Answer
  11. Short paragraphs on a type of line (7)Show Answer
  12. Favourable surroundings (6)Show Answer
  13. Priest gets mixed up with a couple of chaps (9)Show Answer
  14. The quarrel when drug disappears (6)Show Answer
  15. Orwell wanted us to keep it flying (10)Show Answer
  16. In these gardens, a gentleman may walk with you (4)Show Answer
  17. Coward’s song (6,5)Show Answer
  18. Defeat gravity with affection (8)Show Answer
  19. Cunningly argue: ‘Not all mine’ (8)Show Answer
  20. Your old compiler! (5)Show Answer
  21. Ready in Paris about four (6)Show Answer
  22. Eastern camel, twisted with agony, we’re told (10)Show Answer
  23. Day-labourer and youth leader (5)Show Answer
  24. Ratty’s friend? (4)Show Answer
  25. Get teas prepared (7)Show Answer
  26. ‘And there’s the Lenten ___, That has not long to stay And dies on Easter day’ (Housman) (4)Show Answer
  27. Loud and soft (4)Show Answer
  28. Scattered under logs (9)Show Answer
  29. Sir Percy’s alias (7,9)Show Answer
  30. Mythical beast eats heavenly being, having bitten off tail (9)Show Answer
  31. Musical phrase repeated in not altogether orderly context (7)Show Answer
  32. Martial instrument (5)Show Answer
  33. Males of different species (8)Show Answer
  34. Forceful but nameless (6)Show Answer
  35. Post office in Badger’s home has first-class return (10)Show Answer
  36. Jersey to lose a number to Ulster (7)Show Answer
  37. Home in a boat (7)Show Answer
  38. Not many left after the illness (8)Show Answer
  39. Overturn barrel before back massage and soak (9)Show Answer
  40. Number of mythical birds around university (6)Show Answer
  41. Aldebaran? I see . . . It’s in there! (5)Show Answer
  42. ‘The inequity of oblivion blindly scattereth her _____’ (Thomas Browne) (5)Show Answer
  43. Henry must march astray when leader of regiment goes missing (13)Show Answer
  44. One note changed for another in ill-feeling (8)Show Answer
  45. 45 Printers’ signs incorporated into note (7)Show Answer
  46. Preaching sailor? (4-2-3-6)Show Answer
  47. Trophy for a sovereign (7)Show Answer
  48. Give baby some milk, darling! (11)Show Answer
  49. Sybil’s other half (5)Show Answer
  50. A girl or two (8)Show Answer

25th January 2013

Dear Singers

A very happy new year to you all!

Several people have asked whether I’m planning anything special for the Choir’s 30th
anniversary. We’d thought about going to Ripon (where we started), but as many of you will
know, the Choir School there closed last summer after 50 years.

Anyway, Michael Stoddart has offered us several vacation dates at Newcastle Cathedral, and
I’m happy just to do what we’ve always done, namely support our local cathedral whenever
we have a suitably balanced group of singers available.

There are two Sundays in Eastertide, 7th and 14th April. I’d be happy for us to sing on either
or both, and in each case for two services or just the morning. Sometimes we’ve sung on two
successive Sundays, the first as a smaller ‘warm-up’ for the second.

Looking further ahead, there are two Sundays in July (21st and 28th), three in August (4th, 18th
and 25th), and two in September (1st and 8th). Obviously, 25/8 would be part of our usual long
weekend, with Brinkburn the previous day, but again I’d be happy to accept other dates if and
when people are willing.

I’ll gladly book university accommodation again for the summer. It was sad when cheap
residential school facilities started closing (and Kenton Lodge has now closed completely –
we were the last people to stay there in 2005); but I now regret the three ‘restricted’ summers,
2006-8, when we cut numbers down and billeted singers locally. I should have taken the
university option sooner, and the higher cost has not in fact been much of a problem.

Janet and I haven’t done anything about local ‘small choir’ events recently; the arrival of our
grandson in October rather altered our perspective! However, I will look into possibilities for
this year, besides cathedral dates. Please let me know about those, so that I can start choosing
music; and please also tell me if your availability changes. My heart sinks when a telephone
conversation begins with ‘Oh Kieran, I meant to tell you…’.

Anyway, many thanks for your continued support, and I’ll keep you informed of our progress.
Janet and I are happy to hear from any of you at any time.

All good wishes,

Birds, Beasts and Butterflies


  1. Rudolph and friends (8)Show Answer
  2. Deadly sin (5) Show Answer
  3. Deviant paroled (7)Show Answer
  4. One carried by boats to Athens (5)Show Answer
  5. Author of The Chronicles of Clovis (4)Show Answer
  6. Headless hound (5)Show Answer
  7. Nelson the communist? (3,7)Show Answer
  8. Cordon off (6) Show Answer
  9. Time in choirs mis-spent (7)Show Answer
  10. Wizard! (6)Show Answer
  11. Augustus in a rage? (6,7)Show Answer
  12. Rubbish on island (9)Show Answer
  13. A number wrapped in slumber (5)Show Answer
  14. Carpenter’s mate? (6) Show Answer
  15. Scoff predator (4)Show Answer
  16. One who might go a-wooing (4)Show Answer
  17. Cash register in religious house (10)Show Answer
  18. Chatter incessantly (6)Show Answer
  19. Burning love (8)Show Answer
  20. Minced alligator? No thanks (7)Show Answer
  21. Joins up, we hear (4)Show Answer
  22. Spy a pier (4)Show Answer
  23. Two familiar chaps (6)Show Answer
  24. Plain, yet add uncertainly (7,4)Show Answer
  25. Exist to make statement (6)Show Answer
  26. Name given to Leander’s love (5)Show Answer
  27. Izaak Walton to his admirers? (10)Show Answer
  28. Gaoler loses note (6)Show Answer
  29. Fool Quaker (3)Show Answer
  30. I call for more French (4)Show Answer
  31. Anecdotes to trick the lawyer (8)Show Answer
  32. Round ones tend to appear about Christmas (5)Show Answer
  33. Irish involved in social blunder (7) Show Answer
  34. All right then, a Greek letter (5)Show Answer
  35. Pig eats young salmon (7)Show Answer
  36. Heather is leading performer (8)Show Answer
  37. Navy one ran for many years (4)Show Answer
  38. Pester the rescuer of 22 and friend (6)Show Answer
  39. Supposedly pious ground in place (7) Show Answer
  40. Beginning to end of singular school of wizardry (7)Show Answer
  41. In Africa, melodies of great beauty are created (5)Show Answer
  42. "There’s a _________ close behind us" (Lewis Carroll) (8)Show Answer
  43. Dundee children in double file (9)Show Answer
  44. Priest takes in novice (5)Show Answer
  45. Monty’s associate (6) Show Answer
  46. Street decorations (7) Show Answer
  47. Kipling’s old man well and truly run after (8)Show Answer
  48. Mariner’s nemesis (9) Show Answer
  49. Fasten (4)Show Answer
  50. Clean home in disarray (9)Show Answer

Means of Transport (Real and Imaginary)


  1. Rubbish! (4)Show Answer
  2. Was miserable (5)Show Answer
  3. Push your way in (5)Show Answer
  4. It’s murder, we hear (6)Show Answer
  5. ‘A ______ is counted but a vain thing to save a man’ (BCP Psalms) (5)Show Answer
  6. A storm-tossed ocean (5)Show Answer
  7. Comic sketches without a beginning to them (4)Show Answer
  8. A number at Delphi? (7)Show Answer
  9. Fish on the table (10)Show Answer
  10. One in reordered parish (7)Show Answer
  11. Race while front of house is destroyed (10)Show Answer
  12. New-born cherub, one embracing love (8)Show Answer
  13. Path for a bird? (7)Show Answer
  14. Stevenson travelled with one (6)Show Answer
  15. Essay on many sheets of paper, delivered orally (7)Show Answer
  16. Epic host, as deployed . . . (4-6)Show Answer
  17. . . . thanks to a letter (4)Show Answer
  18. Capital! (6)Show Answer
  19. Danes’ new professorship (5,5)Show Answer
  20. What Mr Donegan played after abandoning the French (5)Show Answer
  21. £25; gin as well! (4,3,4)Show Answer
  22. Time had a winged one for Andrew the poet (7)Show Answer
  23. Dynasty has so many followers? Not any! (6)Show Answer
  24. Trainer for the cast (10)Show Answer
  25. Heroin is superior to cunning (10)Show Answer
  26. Plant gum (10)Show Answer
  27. Patches of standing water running backwards! (5)Show Answer
  28. Tube, just over a yard long; nothing for English (5)Show Answer
  29. Unknown number of Germans . . . (5)Show Answer
  30. . . . who had become confused? (6)Show Answer
  31. The Right is confused about priest and policeman (10)Show Answer
  32. Light gold (6)Show Answer
  33. Have up for rebuke after enchantment (5,6)Show Answer
  34. Room with weaving instrument (5,7)Show Answer
  35. Queen of Commonwealth state (8)Show Answer
  36. Pamphlet on alternative (7)Show Answer
  37. Terriers came first? (7)Show Answer
  38. Discovered in shutting lid erratically (6)Show Answer
  39. Legendary bad driver missing hospital (7)Show Answer
  40. Audible attempt to acquire tool, by the sound of it (8)Show Answer
  41. See how fast the device goes in Wells, for example (4,7)Show Answer
  42. TM (6)Show Answer
  43. Strain for playwright (8)Show Answer
  44. Southern bird, English royal (7)Show Answer
  45. Swell up (7)Show Answer
  46. A pound for an Irishman (4)Show Answer
  47. Recycled amber in us (9)Show Answer
  48. Master East is sorted out . . . (7)Show Answer
  49. . . . or a castle is demolished (9)Show Answer
  50. The market makes a comeback (4)Show Answer

Composers


  1. How you initially get DNA sorted out? (5)Show Answer
  2. Go and undo confusion (6)Show Answer
  3. Laurel is planted by river crossing. (8)Show Answer
  4. Get the vehicle dirty, by the sound of it (8)Show Answer
  5. One who’s drunk retsina? (7)Show Answer
  6. Robin, maybe, can be heard (4)Show Answer
  7. Couple going round north get distracted (7)Show Answer
  8. Transport, we’re told, and put away (8)Show Answer
  9. Primates? (7)Show Answer
  10. HL (6)Show Answer
  11. East German gentleman allowed back first (8)Show Answer
  12. English in Ascot is mangled (6)Show Answer
  13. Brook’s Almain (4)Show Answer
  14. Party for a large number (5)Show Answer
  15. Might be found on the Thames (6)Show Answer
  16. Enlarged endlessly and reconstructed (5)Show Answer
  17. Birmingham team meets Wolves in Spain (5-5)Show Answer
  18. Potential sound (4)Show Answer
  19. Short street leading to a French wine: heaven! (10)Show Answer
  20. Defensive manoeuvre (5)Show Answer
  21. Unknown encounters opponents and gets what the poet got from Jenny – almost! (7)Show Answer
  22. Sovereign among musicians? (8)Show Answer
  23. Not here at all, is he? Oh yes he is! (6)Show Answer
  24. Lure constable, intoxicated, to join apprentice (7)Show Answer
  25. He sounds great, but you might not think so! (7)Show Answer
  26. Arrest a country (7)Show Answer
  27. Len mends Mixture, incorporating fifth degree of scale (11)Show Answer
  28. Work included in feature (6)Show Answer
  29. Obtained from the butchers (8)Show Answer
  30. Meant as something different (7)Show Answer

Cities of the World


  1. Press-gang (8)Show Answer
  2. Avenge in bizarre fashion (6)Show Answer
  3. Abandon love (5)Show Answer
  4. Hidden in the water, I gained an advantage (4)Show Answer
  5. Slip on spilt oil (7)Show Answer
  6. Dam on diverted stream (9)Show Answer
  7. Instruments; I’ll give you a hundred for a thousand (7)Show Answer
  8. Where schismatic popes used to dance? (7) Show Answer
  9. Company with board reshuffle (7)Show Answer
  10. Georgetown? (10)Show Answer
  11. NAH (7)Show Answer
  12. Article on heavenly beings in Spain (3,7)Show Answer
  13. Smoke drifting out East (4)Show Answer
  14. Port for Michael? (9)Show Answer
  15. Gone about on devious course round head of river (5,5)Show Answer
  16. Holy one possesses gift? Quite the reverse (6)Show Answer
  17. Golden, according to St Bernard (9)Show Answer
  18. A rejoinder: ‘O, I will provide the materials!’ (3,2,7)Show Answer
  19. Might be found following Jack (6)Show Answer
  20. Bankrupt round about – run madly! (9)Show Answer
  21. Listen to the poet of Arcadia (6)Show Answer
  22. Have a drink here with Brown? (9)Show Answer
  23. Its way of operating is to intimidate! (6)Show Answer
  24. Lofty hostelry (7) Show Answer
  25. See it at your peril? (6)Show Answer
  26. The capital of Czechoslovakia (4)Show Answer
    1. City of China (7)Show Answer
    2. City of China (7)Show Answer
    3. City of China (7)Show Answer
  28. Officer in charge is absorbing the atmosphere (5)Show Answer
  29. Parrot (i.e. exotic creature) (8)Show Answer
  30. Letter about an attempt (7) Show Answer
  31. Head of linguistics is good in French (6)Show Answer
  32. Change? Open to change, anyway (10)Show Answer
  33. Loaners? (3,7)Show Answer
  34. His judgment (or lack of it) led to the Trojan War (5)Show Answer
  35. Roundabout girl (8)Show Answer
  36. Tired to distraction (7)Show Answer
  37. Misshapen thorn by current carries weight (11)Show Answer
  38. Eccentric if and only if put together (7)Show Answer
  39. Malta, then Samos – that’s where you’ll find it (6) Show Answer
  40. BEDURGH (9)Show Answer
  41. Let a good old shepherd, leading them, guide you here (5)Show Answer
  42. Return of Anne the Fourth (6)Show Answer
  43. Managed Harry Secombe? (7)Show Answer
  44. A theologian is a Russian grandmother! (5,5)Show Answer
  45. Biscuit (4)Show Answer
  46. Immortalised in comic verse (8)Show Answer
    1. One evil one (6)Show Answer
    2. One evil one (6)Show Answer
  48. Zsa Zsa is unique! (8)Show Answer
  49. Fulham manager provides a home for it (5)Show Answer
  50. Where the tailor lived (10)Show Answer