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Puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 3, 2026
Another tricky but elegant crossword from Guy. My favourites are 3 (STEVE), 14 (TROUPE) and 17 (SHINDIG). Thanks to BC for help with a couple.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PRAISE |
Congratulate Penny and Jack (6)
|
| P (penny) + RAISE (jack) | ||
| 4 | SPARING |
Economical combining bath and tinkle (7)
|
| SPA (bath) + RING (tinkle) | ||
| 9 | MASQUERADE |
Ball made square bobbles around (10)
|
| Anagram (bobbles around) of MADE SQUARE | ||
| 10 | POTS |
A lot stay over (4)
|
| STOP (stay) backwards (over) | ||
| 11 | TOILET TRAINING |
To wet trousers permitted during it? (6,8)
|
| TO RAINING (wet) contains (trousers) [ LET (permitted) in (during) IT ] & lit. | ||
| 12 | FREE FALL |
Uncontrolled diving off reef allowed to an extent (4,4)
|
| Hidden word (to an extent) | ||
| 14 | TROUPE |
Company that might travel to Peru for a change (6)
|
| Anagram (for a change) of TO PERU | ||
| 16 | ADDS UP |
Encouragement to buy rotten spud is reasonable (4,2)
|
| AD (encouragement to buy) + anagram (rotten) of SPUD | ||
| 18 | VERDANCY |
American’s outside in Washington cutting extremely lush greenery (8)
|
| A[merica]N in (outside) DC (Washington) in (cutting) VERY (extremely) | ||
| 20 | SOCIALIST PARTY |
That secret agency register primarily prejudices bohemian lefties (9,5)
|
| SO (that?) + CIA (secret agency) + LIST (register) + P[rejudices] + ARTY (bohemian) | ||
| 23 | STUD |
Boss learning that deputy’s back has left (4)
|
| STUD[y] | ||
| 24 | IRONMONGER |
Shopkeeper Ronnie played with grommets reduced by 50 per cent? (10)
|
| Anagram (played) of RONNIE GROM[mets] | ||
| 25 | LONG AGO |
Ancient running joke in the middle of Coriolanus taken the wrong way (4-3)
|
| ON (running) + GAG (running joke) in [Cori]OL[anus] backwards (taken the wrong way) | ||
| 26 | ESTEEM |
Rate cheapest EE mobile packages (6)
|
| Hidden word | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PLASTERED |
Drunk done with drinking litres before date (9)
|
| L (litres) in (drinking) PAST (done) + ERE (before) + D (date) | ||
| 2 | ACQUIRE |
Get a group to perform songs on the radio (7)
|
| Homophone (on the radio) of “a choir” | ||
| 3 | STEVE |
Name the first woman canonised? (5)
|
| ST EVE (the first woman canonised) | ||
| 5 | POETASTER |
Terrible lyricist ruined operettas (9)
|
| Anagram (ruined) of OPERETTAS. ‘Poetaster’ means a writer of inferior verse. (Short for poetic disaster???) | ||
| 6 | RIP INTO |
Roast one horse after another’s rump (3,4)
|
| [anothe]R + I (one) + PINTO (horse) | ||
| 7 | NOT ON |
Unacceptable consequence of going for ninety-nine? (3,2)
|
| NO TON (consequence of going for ninety-nine) with TON in the sense of one hundred | ||
| 8 | PAY TELEVISION |
Yankee wearing crown and jeans heading for immortality on Netflix, say (3,10)
|
| Y (yankee) in (wearing) PATE (crown) + LEVIS (jeans) + I[mmortality] + ON (on) | ||
| 13 | APPALLING |
Dreadful father turned up knackered half-way through family movie (9)
|
| PA (father) backwards (turned up) + ALL IN (knackered) in (through) PG (family movie, where PG stands for Parental Guidance) | ||
| 15 | PACHYDERM |
Nasty dry peach Amy peeled is thick-skinned type (9)
|
| Anagram (nasty) of DRY PEACH + [a]M[y] | ||
| 17 | SHINDIG |
Do bone work at archaeological site (7)
|
| SHIN (bone) + DIG (work at archaeological site) | ||
| 19 | ARRANGE |
Plan maximum length of drive to put Alfa Romeo on (7)
|
| AR (Alfa Romeo) + RANGE (maximum length of drive) | ||
| 21 | OUT DO |
Reveal secrets of complete eclipse (5)
|
| OUT (reveal secrets) + DO (complete) | ||
| 22 | PUMPS |
Lady’s shoes Mike put in litter (5)
|
| M (mike) in (put in) PUPS (litter) |
Thanks Guy and Pete
11ac TO RAINING (wet) contains (trousers) [ LET (permitted) in (during) IT ] & lit.
I agree that it was elegant and tricky. I share TROUPE and SHINDIG as favourites and add NOT ON.
I could not parse RIP INTO (thinking another’s rump was PINTO without the P), and simply did not see PG in 13. I had the same parsing of 11 as PB@1.
Thanks Guy and Pete
4a made me laugh out loud, which made the other people in the cafe look at me. I guess most people don’t realise crosswords can contain humour. Parsed 11a as PB@1, which I thought was a standout clue.
Has the app stopped working or are they putting it behind a paywall? An excellent puzzle. Is there an &littish aspect to IRONMONGER?
Found this very enjoyable with particular favourites being SPARING, SOCIALIST PARTY, SHINDIG, PLASTERED and STEVE
5dn: SOED 2007 p 139 gives -aster “Forming nouns expressing poor quality or incomplete resemblance”. This appears to be a Latin suffix, and seems to be unrelated to the Greek word for a star which forms the second part of disaster, but also appears in words such as asterisk and asteroid.
I initially had 11 (TOILET TRAINING) as a cryptic definition and thank Pelham and Martyn for correcting me.
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues , lots of variety .
Peter@4 I think it is a loose reference to the Four Candles sketch .