Puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 16, 2026
Thank you Julius for another gem. My top favourite has to be 17 (UP IN ARMS) and I also like 1 (CLAIRVOYANCE), 3 (INDUSTRY), 9 (CAYMAN ISLANDS), 14 (EL SALVADOR), 26 (FINLAND) and 28 (ERROR MESSAGE).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CLAIRVOYANCE |
Medium strength? (12)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 10 | KINGDOM |
Family dog barking madly first thing, in a state (7)
|
| KIN (family) + anagram (barking) of DOG + M[adly] | ||
| 11 | LIBERIA |
Large peninsula country (7)
|
| L (large) + IBERIA (peninsula) | ||
| 12 | LOBOS |
Buffalo, Boston hosting Timberwolves (5)
|
| Hidden word (hosting) | ||
| 13 | MOMENTUM |
Second mother sat outside hospital dept (Labour wing) (8)
|
| MO (second) + ENT (hospital dept) in (outside) MUM (mother) | ||
| 15 | TOWER BLOCK |
Building support for Anne Boleyn finally? (5,5)
|
| Double/cryptic definition | ||
| 16 | SCAN |
Closely examine Head of Chambers in hospital (4)
|
| C[hambers] in (in) SAN (hospital) | ||
| 18 | NAAN |
Bit on the side for Indian that swings both ways? (4)
|
| Palindrome | ||
| 20 | CAPRI PANTS |
Cold day in spring, gasps in short trousers (5,5)
|
| C (cold) + APR I (day in spring!) + PANTS (gasps) | ||
| 22 | TAKE FIVE |
Standard advice regarding daily fruit & veg portions? (4,4)
|
| Double definition with the first referring to the jazz standard from Dave Brubeck | ||
| 24 | NORMA |
Work from Milan or Mantua? (5)
|
| Hidden word (from) with the definition referring presumably to Vicenzo Bellini’s opera | ||
| 26 | FINLAND |
Discovery Network is opening the country (7)
|
| LAN (network, as in Local Area Network) in (is opening) FIND (discovery) | ||
| 27 | PARTIED |
In flat, retailer regularly held raves (7)
|
| R[e]T[a]I[l]E[r] in (in) PAD (flat) | ||
| 28 | ERROR MESSAGE |
Gutted Endeavour Morse rages over PC’s unhelpful response (5,7)
|
| E[ndeavou]R + anagram (over) of MORSE RAGES | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | LONGBOW |
Response to standing ovation, one for The Archers? (7)
|
| LONG BOW (response to standing ovation) | ||
| 3 | INDUSTRY |
Business run in Indiana (Springfield) (8)
|
| R (run) in (in) IN (Indiana) + DUSTY (Springfield). By the way, despite there being around 32 Springfields in the USA, there is none in Indiana. | ||
| 4 | VAMP |
Seductress undressed Evan, elected UK politician (4)
|
| [e]VA[n] + MP (elected UK politician) | ||
| 5 | YELLOW CARD |
Caution chicken about road? (6,4)
|
| YELLOW (chicken) + CA (about) + RD (road) | ||
| 6 | NOBLE |
“Vote against British!” — the French aristo (5)
|
| NO (vote against) + B (British) + LE (the French) | ||
| 7 | ERRATIC |
Idle traitor, boring, capricious (7)
|
| RAT (traitor) in (boring) ERIC (Idle) | ||
| 8 | SKELETON STAFF |
The headcount’s down to the bare bones (8,5)
|
| I am unsure about this one. I find it hard to pick out a definition short of the whole clue. But if the whole clue is intended as definition then it seems hardly cryptic. | ||
| 9 | CAYMAN ISLANDS |
Work on many scandals involving international tax shelter (6,7)
|
| I (international) in (involving) anagram (work on) of MANY SCANDALS | ||
| 14 | EL SALVADOR |
Land after flying over Dallas (2,8)
|
| Anagram (after flying) of OVER DALLAS | ||
| 17 | UP IN ARMS |
Hotly protesting bonkers puritanism banning bonking (2,2,4)
|
| Anagram (bonkers) of PUR[it]ANISM | ||
| 19 | ASKANCE |
Request jig, leaving daughter looking sceptically (7)
|
| ASK (request) + [d]ANCE (jig leaving daughter) | ||
| 21 | NURSING |
Chant in support of old railway union, a caring profession (7)
|
| NUR (old railway union) + SING (chant). Growing up in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century one heard plenty about the National Union of Railwaymen. Thanks to a merger the NUR became history in 1990. | ||
| 23 | FLAIR |
Football’s wingers display talent (5)
|
| F[ootbal]L + AIR (display) | ||
| 25 | APSE |
Leaders of all parties support Easter recess (4)
|
| A[ll] P[arties] S[upport] E[aster] |
Lovely grid for a Sunday! I had trouble parsing a few including 8D and 22D, and was eagerly waiting for the blog 🙂
Shouldn’t the annotation for 5D have
CA (about) instead of RE (about)?
Ta, Julius & Pete!
I could have ticked any number of clues, but managed to limit myself to NAAN (he made me go through a mental list of swing bowlers), LONGBOW, EL SALVADOR, TOWER BLOCK and CLAIRVOYANCE (LOI that took some time to come to me).
All parsed except CAPRI PANTS, as I did not think of APR 1 and wondered where the L in “April” went. I was not sure about SKELETON STAFF either.
Thanks Julius and Pete
Liked CAPRI PANTS, CLAIRVOYANCE, LONG BOW and UP IN ARMS.
Just an extra bit:
Anne BOLEYN’s execution was carried out with a sword rather than a traditional axe and chopping block, she remained kneeling upright in the French style of beheading rather than lying prone.
Thanks Julius and Pete.
Eric Idle appearing twice in a fortnight between FT and Guardian. I enjoyed this. Liked UP IN ARMS, CLAIRVOYANCE, CAPRI PANTS and ERROR MESSAGE.
Thanks Julius and Pete
Error message was vg. Thx both
Really enjoyed this which I solved quite quickly for once.
Favourites included: ASKANCE, ERRATIC, CAPRI PANTS
Thanks Julius and Pete
I blame kenmac for his recent blog. For the second part of 20a, P?N?S, I could only think of one word for a while (what a prick, as he wrote). Not helped by “hairy” fitting the first part 😀
Thanks Julius for the Saturday entertainment. My favourites were the country clues, FINLAND, EL SALVADOR, and CAYMAN ISLANDS, my least favourite clues were the cryptic definitions. Thanks Pete for the blog.
I’m always looking for themes and with EL SALVADOR, CAYMAN ISLANDS, FINLAND and LIBERIA, I thought there must be one. When KINGDOM showed up, I searched everywhere for UNITED … in vain. I love a Julius crossword.
Further to KVa@3
King Henry as an act of mercy had Anne beheaded by a French executioner from Calais. The sword was less brutal than the axe. The role of the block is unknown.Perhaps is just marked the location of the execution.
Thanks both.
Thanks for the blog , usual high standard of clues with many nice touches .
The ghost of Anne Boleyn appears at the Tower of London every year on May 19th . It must be very clever to have adapted to the Gregorian calendar .