Puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 26, 2026
Due to some personal matters I posted this blog nearly 13 hours late. Sorry the the delay. I was rushed and made some mistakes too.
I have to thank several commenters for enlightening me about how certain clues work. My top favourite clue is the outstanding HIDDEN AGENDA. This was a pleasure to solve. Thank you Neo and, here, have a pint of Häagen-Dazs.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MACHIAVELLI |
5 in malice hail corrupt political 29 (11)
|
| V (5) in (in) anagram (corrupt) of MALICE HAIL with 29 referring to philosopher | ||
| 7 | HAW |
Fruit — predatory bird wanting kilo (3)
|
| HAW[k] (predatory bird wanting ‘K’ for kilo) | ||
| 9 | SENNA |
Motorsport icon Boleyn and Cleves recalled? (5)
|
| ANNES (Boleyn and Cleves) reversed (recalled) | ||
| 10 | EURIPIDES |
Dramatist in Eire is with DUP surprisingly (9)
|
| Anagram (surprisingly) of EIRE IS DUP where DUP is the Democratic Unionist Party. | ||
| 11 | ACETYLENE |
Celt with an eye out for C2H2 (9)
|
| Anagram (out) of CELT AN EYE | ||
| 12 | DWEEB |
Nerd one Royal Society girl embraces (5)
|
| WE (one royal) in (embraces) DEB (girl) | ||
| 13 | CARAFES |
Say red and white containers? (7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 15 | YANK |
New Englander’s tooth extraction technique? (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | SNUB |
U-boat carrying any number turned up (4)
|
| N (any number) in (carrying) SUB (U-boat) | ||
| 20/27 | EVERY SO OFTEN |
Earl with most suitable temper receiving love now and then (5,2,5)
|
| E (earl) + VERY (most suitable) + O (love) in (receiving) SOFTEN (temper) | ||
| 23 | GNOME |
Maxim the Obscure Financier (5)
|
| Double definition. I really blew this one! I managed to dig up an obscure IT thing that I took to be the first definition. It actually is just, as Collins says, “a short pithy saying, a maxim”. I assume, with the second refers to one of the Gnomes of Zurich | ||
| 24 | REGROUPED |
Ginger fed with fish almost rallied (9)
|
| GROUPE[r] (fish almost) in (fed with) RED (ginger) | ||
| 26 | NIGHTMARE |
Horse chasing man discussed bad experience (9)
|
| NIGHT homophone (discussed) of “knight” + MARE (horse) | ||
| 28 | AIR |
Simple tune not bad sans introduction (3)
|
| [f]AIR (not bad sans introduction) | ||
| 29 | PHILOSOPHER |
Polish hero damaged absorbing pressure one thinks (11)
|
| P (pressure) in anagram (damaged) of POLISH HERO | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MISMATCH |
Optimism at Chevening masks conflict (8)
|
| Hidden word (masks). By the way, I learned that Chevening is a large country house in Kent. | ||
| 2 | CANBERRA |
Black stray in Galilean location and city (8)
|
| B (black) + ERR (stray) together in CANA (Galilean location) | ||
| 3 | ITALY |
Laity all over the place in Catholic country (5)
|
| Anagram (all over the place) of LAITY | ||
| 4 | VIEWERS |
Those watching six large water vessels (7)
|
| VI (six) + EWERS (large water vessels) | ||
| 5 | LARCENY |
Crime racket here and there in two American cities (7)
|
| R[a]C[k]E[t] in (in) LA NY (two American cities) | ||
| 6 | IMPEDANCE |
Hindrance in Spain interrupting La Diablada? (9)
|
| E (Spain) in (interrupting) IMP DANCE (La Diablada) | ||
| 7/21 | HIDDEN AGENDA |
Secret plan Häagen-Dazs suggests? (6,6)
|
| A sort of a reverse hidden word. And a brilliant clue! | ||
| 8 | WASABI |
Hot stuff , did you see me hugging sailor? (6)
|
| AB (sailor) in (hugging) WAS I (did you see me). I happened to solve this clue right after a sushi dinner. | ||
| 14 | FINGER TIP |
Identify suspect advice in digital feature (9)
|
| FINGER (identify) + TIP (advice) | ||
| 16 | EYEPATCH |
Stock pirate feature (archetype possibly not right) (8)
|
| Anagram (not right) of A[r]CHETYPE | ||
| 17 | LONDONER |
Cockney perhaps briefly sustained by kebab (8)
|
| LON[g] (briefly sustained) + DONER (kebab) | ||
| 19 | BIRYANI |
Rice dish one with no meat served up (7)
|
| I (one) + NAY (no) + RIB (meat) all backwards (served up) | ||
| 20 | EL GRECO |
Composer leaving area green for painter (2,5)
|
| ELG[a]R (composer leaving area) + ECO (green) | ||
| 22 | COUGAR |
Ailment endless with a river animal (6)
|
| COUG[h] (ailment endless) + A (a) + R (river) | ||
| 25 | OVOLO |
Architectural feature in Kosovo lovely (5)
|
| Hidden word (in). An ovolo is a convex moulding with a cross section in the form of a quarter of a circle or ellipse |
Id is a hidden word. For DWEEB, I took WE as ‘one Royal’ and DEB as ‘Society girl’.
Enjoyed this and thought this a little easier than usual.
Favourites: SENNA, DWEEB, NIGHTMARE, LARCENY, HIDDEN AGENDA, WASABI
(agree with Hovis@1 re 1d and DWEEB)
Thanks Neo and Pete Maclean
Collins has “a short pithy saying, a maxim” as a definition of GNOME.
Thanks to Neo and Pete Maclean
Thanks Neo for an intelligent, enjoyable crossword. My top picks were YANK, CANBERRA, ITALY, LONDONER, and OVOLO. My only stumble was GNOME, not recognizing either definition. Thanks Pete for the blog.
1dn is a hidden word.
Neo has produced his usual high standard, and also his usual array of obscure words. I particularly liked SNUB, and HIDDEN AGENDA.
Two questions: I am still unable to understand the parsing of CARAFES – would someone kindly explain it, please? Also 20 says ELAGAR leaving area. Should the clue not be area leaving ELGAR?
I hope all is now OK Pete
Thanks Neo and Pete
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues .
Martyn@6 , red and white are wines for the CARAFES .
EL GRECO , leaving can mean abandoning so it is ELGAR abandoning A .
Thanks, Martyn @#6. I was beginning to fear that I am the only solver annoyed by the growing trend among setters of switching the thing that is leaving with what’s being left. I’ve seen this three times in the past six weeks and I don’t see any justification for it. As for CARAFES, I excused it as a delightful cryptic definition with a completely superfluous use of the word “Say”–but perhaps someone else has a better explanation?
Thoroughly enjoyed this one, though it took a few visits.
Thanks Pete et al.
Doesn’t the ‘leaving’ thing work either way, using the first two vt defs in Chambers? My editors seem to think so, at any rate.
The CARAFE clue uses ‘say’ as wine comes in various colours. The AI tab on my browser comes up with:
Wine primarily comes in three main commercial categories (red, white, and rosé), but spans six or seven distinct visual hues and dozens of specific shade variations depending on age and winemaking style.
Oh, wine!
In a way, it was obvious but it also had a misleading element (I could not get past thinking the vessel itself is coloured red and white). Nice clue. And thanks to those who responded.
I too stared blankly at Chevening, looked it up and found out all about post-grad scholarships, finally shrugged and entered mismatch from def=conflict, and only then saw the hidden, d’oh!
Good puzzle, ta Neo and Pete.
Chevening is like Chequers (used for the PM), in that it is traditionally assigned for use by a member of the Cabinet (the Foreign Secretary). The arrangements for the provision of such use are not quite the same, as I understand it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevening
Thank you, Neo, for checking in! Much appreciated.
I couldn’t quite finish it – I was never going to get Gnome. Hidden Agenda is the best clue I’ve seen for ages!