Puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 21, 2026
Here we have another great piece of work from Julius with a gem in 1 (OMAR SHARIF) and 2 (MANTEAU) a cherry on top. ‘Manteau’ refers to the heavy overcoat that Omar Sharif’s character wore in Doctor Zhivago. There are some some interesting connections in this puzzle, some may be deliberate, some may not. There are three drinks (Calvados, Muscadet and Champagne). There’s NABOB and HOBNOB. And there are Jack, Emma, Omar, Guy and Tim.
By the way, I took last weekend off because I was away from home celebrating my birthday.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | OMAR SHARIF |
Ngaio Marsh, a rifle-toting heart-throb (4,6)
|
| Hidden word (toting). Ngaio Marsh was the pen name of .Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh, a crime writer from New Zealand.. | ||
| 7 | GAPE |
Georgina, exhausted, starts to produce enormous yawn (4)
|
| G[eorgin]A + P[roduce] E[normous] | ||
| 9 | SNIP |
Cut nails back (4)
|
| PINS (nails) backwards (back) | ||
| 10 | CHIMNEY POT |
Python and mice on the loose in part of the house (7,3)
|
| Anagram (on the loose) of PYTHON MICE | ||
| 11 | PERDUE |
Latam country impounds diamonds European concealed (6)
|
| D (diamonds) in (impounds) PERU (Latam country) + E (european). LATAM is multinational airline that I once flew to Peru. I know ‘perdue’ as a French word much more than as an English one and I note that Collins tells us the the English word should be spelled ‘perdu’. | ||
| 12 | CALVADOS |
In Spain, bubbly parties filled with Liberal spirit (8)
|
| L (Liberal) in (filled with) CAVA (in Spain bubbly) + DOS (parties) | ||
| 13 | MUSCADET |
Wine beginning to mesmerise American trainee officer (8)
|
| M[esmerise] +US (American) + CADET (trainee officer) | ||
| 15 | KLEE |
Moose knocked over European painter (4)
|
| ELK (moose) backwards (knocked over) + E (European) | ||
| 17 | EMMA |
Madame reviewed author’s first novel (4)
|
| MME (madame) backwards (reviewed) + A[uthor] | ||
| 19 | ABRASION |
Adult underwear is the wrong way round; leg sore (8)
|
| A (adult) + BRA (underware) + IS (is) backwards (is the wrong way round) + ON (leg, as in cricket) | ||
| 22 | SLIP ROAD |
Doris lap dancing where truckers leave the M1? (4,4)
|
| Anagram (dancing) of DORIS LAP | ||
| 23 | ORNATE |
Decorated knight dressed in gold had dinner (6)
|
| OR (gold) + N (knight) + ATE (had dinner) | ||
| 25 | GORGONZOLA |
Unpleasant woman sent back a 50 ounce cheese (10)
|
| GORGON (unpleasant woman) + {A (a) + L (50) + OZ (ounce)} backwards | ||
| 26 | BUMP |
Strike bottom softly (4)
|
| BUM (bottom) + P (softly) | ||
| 27 | HALE |
Healthy precipitation reported (4)
|
| Homophone (reported) of “hail” (precipitation) | ||
| 28 | BASKETBALL |
Court action ruined kebab stall (10)
|
| Anagram (ruined) of KEBAB STALL | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | MANTEAU |
Chap — Lawrence — put on gold cloak (7)
|
| MAN (chap) + TE (Lawrence) + AU (gold) | ||
| 3 | RAPID |
Fast acceleration in inflation measure (Germany) (5)
|
| A (acceleration) in (in) RPI (inflation measure) + D (Germany) | ||
| 4 | HACIENDA |
CIA head arranged to acquire new house down south (8)
|
| N (new) in (to acquire) anagram (arranged) of CIA HEAD | ||
| 5 | RAIN CATS AND DOGS |
Dad’s carnations went mad after being fed by gallon bucket (4,4,3,4)
|
| G (gallon) in (being fed by) anagram (went mad) of DADS CARNATIONS | ||
| 6 | FINALE |
“Not applicable” entered in dossier in the end (6)
|
| NA (not applicable) in (entered in) FILE (dossier) | ||
| 7 | GUY FAWKES |
Terrorist chap pretends to cuddle wife (3,6)
|
| GUY (chap) + W (wife) in (to cuddle) FAKES (pretends) | ||
| 8 | PROPOSE |
Suggest something struck by model? (7)
|
| PRO (something struck) + POSE (model) | ||
| 14 | CHAMPAGNE |
Drink tea, name “PG Tips” (9)
|
| CHA (tea) + anagram (tips) of NAME PG. Non-Brits may not know that “PG Tips” is a popular brand of tea in the UK. | ||
| 16 | ARROGATE |
Claim husband vanished from Yorkshire spa town (8)
|
| [h]ARROGATE (‘H’ vanished from Yorkshire spa town) | ||
| 18 | MOLDOVA |
Country doctor left last of boiled eggs (7)
|
| MO (doctor, i.e. Medical Officer) + L (left) + [boile]D + OVA (eggs) | ||
| 20 | OPTIMAL |
Best man, gemstone rings (7)
|
| TIM (man) in (rings) OPAL (gemstone) | ||
| 21 | HOBNOB |
Associate with The Devil, Jack? (6)
|
| HOB (The Devil) + NOB (jack) | ||
| 24 | NABOB |
Arrest former pupil, one with great wealth (5)
|
| NAB (arrest) + OB (former pupil, i.e. Old Boy) |
I thought this was a lovely puzzle.
Difficult to choose favourites but here goes: PERDUE, CALVADOS, MUSCADET, ARROGATE, MOLDOVA
and yes the hidden OMAR SHARIF was brilliant
Thanks Julius and Pete Maclean
I found this very approachable. It was a relief after a week of difficult puzzles, and what a consistently strong set of surfaces.
Similar to Fiona@1, I could have ticked any number of clues, but in the end managed to limit my likes to KLEE, OMAR SHERIF (brilliant, I agree), RAINS CATS AND DOGS, CALVADOS, and ORNATE.
All parsed, and I will cherish forever the knowledge that Harrogate is a spa town in Yorkshire. On 20: I am glad we have seen fewer setters using “man”, “woman” etc to clue a name.
Belated happy birthday wishes, Pete, and thanks for the blog. Thanks too to Julius for a splendid puzzle.
I know I’m being dumb, but how does PRO mean “something struck”? I did think that a professional model would be striking a pro-pose, but (a) not all models are professional and (b) it’s a very weak definition, so I thought there must be some other meaning, but nothing struck me. I hope someone can help me out.
Notwithstanding that query, I enjoyed this puzzle, as I do all of Julius’ work. I especially like 12 CALVADOS, 13 MUSCADET and 14 CHAMPAGNE, before, during and after a meal, but not necessarily in that order.
I’m also a big fan of Ngaio Marsh, so the beautifully hidden heart-throb at 1a was my favourite clue. Well spotted, Julius.
Thanks J&P for the jolly puzzle and judicious parsing.
Thanks Julius for the Saturday treat. Favourites included SNIP, CHIMNEY TOP, CALVADOS, EMMA, GORGONZOLA, GUY FAWKES, and CHAMPAGNE. (BTW, PG Tips is commonly available in US supermarkets.) Parsings were fairly clear but like Cellomaniac I’m not certain how PROPOSE works. Thanks Pete for the blog and Happy Birthday.
Cellomaniac@3 I agree with your suggested parsing of 8D. As “something struck” = POSE, a PRO-POSE is something struck by a professional, and the question mark provides for the definition “something struck by a model” to be a definition by example. I think that works OK, and it’s fair.
I had no problem with a PRO POSE being something a model might do. But despite an economics degree I had never heard of RPI as an inflation gauge – perhaps a UK special? Loved the bucket clue – gorgeous surface.
Bradley. RPI is the Retail Price Index, a measure of economic growth, so it gauges inflation in that sense.
Bradley@6
In the UK the RPI ( retail prices index)was an indicator of price changes ,now superseded by the CPI or consumer prices index.
I share the enthusiasm for OMAR SHARIF.
Enjoyed the puzzle so thanks Julius and blog.
Thanks for the blog , very neat set of clues , EMMA a nice allusion to Madame Bovary .
Cellomaniac@3 you have basically answered your own question but there is a normal valid definition of Suggest=PROPOSE . The rest is just the cryptic bit and I take a model as someone who poses professionally .
Will any setter ever use a soundalike as a clue for KLEE ? In the Guardian blogs it would cause a riot .
Roz. Artist’s material for sculpting picked up (4). This was a clue in the Independent several years ago.
Thanks Hovis@10 , that is a very good clue .
Roz@9 Gozo in the FT on May 25 “Potter’s medium is spoken of” No definition as it’s a world puzzle. Great puzzle as usual from Julius
“Swiss artist sounded out pig meat song 4,4” would really get them going.
Peter@12 , are you sure ? I would have remembered that .
Maybe you don’t do Sunday FT as I have a feeling they are online only?
Yes Peter@15 , of course , I have seen the blogs for these and I would enjoy them but not in the paper , alas .