The Times - Specialist - December 24 2017 Crossword Puzzle Answers

The Times - Specialist Crossword Puzzle Solutions - December 24 2017

Clues	Answers
“SUCCESS FOUR FLIGHTS THURSDAY MORNING […] LONGEST 59 SECONDS INFORM PRESS HOME ____” (Telegram sent by Wright brothers on December 17, 1903)	CHRISTMAS
1982 snooker tournament in which Steve Davis made the first televised maximum break	Lada Classic
A love affair, especially a secret one	LIAISON
A student of ancient Greek culture	HELLENIST
Abbreviated, the address of a web page	URL
Adult offshoot of the children’s TV show Tiswas	OTT
African river, reportedly one of the ten accounting for 90% of the plastic entering the world’s oceans	NIGER
Author who created Lord Peter Wimsey	Dorothy Sayers
Bethlehem visitors, mentioned in only one gospel	Wise Men of the East
Canadian prime minister born on Christmas Day 1971	Justin Trudeau
Cancellation of a bad debt	write-off
Carol telling the story of a Bohemian ruler’s journey to give alms	Good King Wenceslas
Cereal hybrid of wheat and rye	TRITICALE
Distress call which comes from the pronunciation of “help me” in French	MAYDAY
Dragon in the Ivor the Engine TV series	IDRIS
Electronic percussion instruments	drum pads
Festive-sounding final song on Van Morrison’s 1970 album Moondance	Glad Tidings
Floria ____ is a famous singer in a Puccini opera	TOSCA
French writer and dramatist, fictionalised in an 1897 play by Edmond Rostand	Cyrano De Bergerac
From Afrikaans, a tree formerly used to make cartwheels	wagenboom
Hat, gloves, scarf, coat etc	winter clothing
Holly or ivy, for example	EVERGREEN
Instrument which measures the velocity of blood flow	RHEOMETER
King who ordered the killing of the infant Jesus	HEROD
Location of the final battle of the English Civil War	WORCESTER
London district which hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics	STRATFORD
Mathematical set comprising all the elements of two or more others	UNION
Most weird	EERIEST
Multi-pronged spear used for fishing	LEISTER
Name by which Rangifer tarandus has popular yuletide connotations	REINDEER
Old-fashioned golf club with a slightly hollowed face	SPOON
One thing to do when preparing the festive meal?	lay the table
One thing you can do with an unwanted Christmas present	REGIFT
Operation name for the Second World War invasion of Normandy	OVERLORD
Originally the main dish of a meal, now something dramatic like a flambéed Christmas pudding	piece de resistance
Outward movement of the tide	EBB
People who created a kingdom in northern Italy in AD493	ostrogoths
Popular seasonal song written by James Pierpont	Jingle Bells
Relating to the back of the head	OCCIPITAL
Required by etiquette or custom	de rigueur
Seaweeds and similar plants	ALGAE
Second in a series of five Christmas books by Charles Dickens	The Chimes
Sesame seed condiment used in making hummus	TAHINI
Small present, not traditionally placed under the tree	stocking filler
Something to take for indigestion	ANTACID
South Bank attraction whose ceremonial opening was on New Year’s Eve 1999	London Eye
Spartan naval commander whose capture of Athens ended the Peloponnesian War	LYSANDER
Storage medium whose single-layer format holds 4.7 GB of data	DVD
Substance formerly used to make gramophone records	SHELLAC
The exchange of digital data over networks	DATACOM
The home of Santa and his elves	North Pole
The two main ingredients of traditional turkey stuffing	sage and onions
To convert into vinegar	acetify
To link a book or song with a person, as a sign of affection or respect	DEDICATE
Two Aramaic words as a single word in 1 Corinthians, meaning “O Lord, come” or “Our Lord has come”	maranatha
What some winter birds are noted for	red breasts
Wine production method often used for Prosecco	charmat
Wine shop, or warehouse in which wine is stored and aged	BODEGA
____ broadcast his observations on American life, for the BBC, for 58 years	Alistair Cooke
____ Nesbit wrote The Railway Children	EDITH