Puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 17, 2026
Another fine puzzle from Julius with two cryptic definitions. My favorites are 2 (COINTREAU), 11 (TETRAGRAM), 13 (KEYHOLE SURGERY), 24 (IMPROMPTU) and 27 (TRAPEZE). Thank you Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | JACKASS |
Contract killer’s abandoned student son Charlie (7)
|
| JACKA[l] (contract killer’s abandoned ‘L’) + S (son) with the contract killer referring to a professional assassin in Frederick Forsyth’s novel “The Day of the Jackal” and its dramatization on film. | ||
| 5 | FAUX PAS |
Fine gold cross foolish person returned in blunder (4,3)
|
| F (fine) + AU (gold) + X (cross) + SAP (foolish person) backwards (returned) | ||
| 9 | UNITE |
Join backing for Brussels saving money (5)
|
| TIN (money) in (saving) EU (Brussels) all backwards (backing) | ||
| 10 | PARTNERED |
Married Dad embarrassed to admit pretence periodically (9)
|
| [p]R[e]T[e]N[c]E in (to admit) PA (dad) and RED (embarrassed) | ||
| 11 | TETRAGRAM |
When retired, Mrs Thatcher acquired 15 finally (a four-letter word) (9)
|
| [sobrique]T (15 finally) in (acquired) MARGARET (Mrs Thatcher) backwards (when retired) | ||
| 12 | THROW |
Chuck topless bird out of London airport (5)
|
| [hea]THROW [r]HEA (topless bird) removed from HEATHROW (London airport) | ||
| 13 | KEYHOLE SURGERY |
Theatre work which hardly leaves ‘em in stitches (7,7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 18 | CRUCIVERBALIST |
Vintage claret Ibis served around five for you or me? (14)
|
| CRU (vintage, often met in Grands Cru) + V (five) in (around) anagram (served) of CLARET IBIS | ||
| 20 | INDUS |
River Island stocking new designer underwear tops (5)
|
| N (new) + D[esigner] U[nderwear] together in IS (island) | ||
| 22 | TWIN TOWNS |
Onset of terrible season leaving, er, snow blowing around friendly communities (4,5)
|
| T[errible] + WINT[er] (season leaving ER) + anagram (blowing around) of SNOW | ||
| 24 | IMPROMPTU |
Spontaneous, Julius is ready for delivery. You? (9)
|
| IM (Julius is) + PROMPT (ready for delivery) + U (you) | ||
| 25 | RHINO |
Horny beast Greek character beds at home (5)
|
| IN (at home) in (beds) RHO (Greek character) | ||
| 26 | TOTEMIC |
Carry Head of Military in command, of symbolic importance (7)
|
| TOTE (carry) + M[ilitary] + IC (in command) | ||
| 27 | TRAPEZE |
Swingers bar? (7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | JAUNTY |
Smart bird picks up cracked nut (6)
|
| Anagram (cracked) of NUT in (picks up) JAY (bird) | ||
| 2 | COINTREAU |
Order tonic water from Paris infused with a dash of rough liqueur (9)
|
| Anagram (order) of TONIC + R[ough] + EAU (water from Paris) | ||
| 3 | ARENA |
Space to include new stadium (5)
|
| N (new) in (to include) AREA (space) | ||
| 4 | SUPERGLUE |
Its amazing bonding powers are not to be sniffed at! (9)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 5 | FORUM |
Return of peculiar area for discussion (5)
|
| FO (return of) + RUM (peculiar) | ||
| 6 | UNNATURAL |
Forced Alan out with U-turn (9)
|
| Anagram (out) of ALAN U TURN | ||
| 7 | PURER |
More natural, happy noise from cat after eating sardine’s tail (5)
|
| [sardin]E in (eating) PURR (happy noise from cat) | ||
| 8 | SIDEWAYS |
Team reportedly considers moving laterally (8)
|
| SIDE (team) + homophone (reportedly) of “weighs” (considers) | ||
| 14 | HAILSTORM |
Shower with Rolling Stones? (9)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 15 | SOBRIQUET |
Rob’s quite horrible nickname (9)
|
| Anagram (horrible) of ROBS QUITE | ||
| 16 | ERSTWHILE |
Formerly poorest island, according to Spooner (9)
|
| Spoonerism of “worst isle”. Surely this is more a metathesis than a spoonerism. | ||
| 17 | ACTIVIST |
Penultimate part of drama is tense – one stands up (8)
|
| ACT IV (penultimate part of drama, assuming five acts in full) + IS (is) + T (tense) | ||
| 19 | ASHORE |
Silvery mineral on the beach (6)
|
| ASH (silvery) + ORE (mineral) | ||
| 21 | DEPOT |
Most senior editor upset regimental HQ (5)
|
| TOP ED (most senior editor) all backwards (upset) | ||
| 22 | TOPIC |
Subject right out of line in Geography lesson? (5)
|
| T[r]OPIC | ||
| 23 | TERRA |
Component of softer rare earth (5)
|
| Hidden word (component of) |
Thanks Julius, and Pete.
Liked this.
1a typo?
Killer’s = JACKA(l)S minus l plus S
A pangram, too.
Thanks Julius and Pete. Some great cryptic definitions here. I cannot see any wordplay for any of the ones you have marked as cd, although the use of the abbreviated form (’em) in the clue at 13ac makes me feel that there ought to be some.
I agree with ilippu@1 on the parsing for 1ac.
Agreed, this was another juicy weekend entertainment from Juius.
TETRAGRAM was impressive both for its reversal and the surface; other favourites included the related
SOBRIQUET and COUNTREAU.
Thanks both.
I agree with Diane’s comment and her list of favourites, adding JAUNTY.
Re FORUM: isn’t RUMFO the reverse of “of peculiar”? I viewed KEYHOLE SURGERY as more of a dad joke than a cryptic definition. But all good fun and a nice puzzle with a lot to like
Thanks Julius and Pete
Actually, Martyn, I rather liked JAUNTY too (reads well). Perhaps liking COINTREAU too much caused me to misspell it initially!
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues , many very concise .
KEYHOLE SURGERY – I think the deceptive reading is the showbiz saying – leave ’em laughing – also the name of an early Laurel and Hardy short film .
Always happy to see a Julius puzzle and I did enjoy this one.
Didn’t parse TETRAGRAM, ERSTWHILE
Liked: PAUX PAS (FOI), IMPROMPTU, TOTEMIC, JAUNTY, PURER, KEYHOLE SURGERY
Thanks Julius and Pete
Enjoyable although I found the definition in 17d of ACT IV a bit strange. As a very minor point, I would have preferred an alternative word to “natural” in 7d following the solution to 6d.
Pete, dyu mean that the word ‘erstwhile’ actually came about via a swapping of sounds … ?
Thanks for the blog. Very much enjoyed 11a. Was also a bit thrown by ’em in 13a, but enjoyed the CD nevertheless. Was unsure about parsing 19d, since I’m not sure about ‘ASH’ being ‘Silvery’- thought that would have been ‘ASHEN’? But overall, a very witty crossword.
MrsGraves @10: “Ash blonde” as I understand it is a more silvery colour than normal blonde, so I think that works.
Hovis @8: Classical (I think Roman, not Greek) dramatic convention was to structure plays in 5 acts and this became an accepted norm which was, for example, imposed on Shakespeare’s plays in the First Folio (i.e. as edited, not as written or originally performed). So while not all plays have 5 acts, the concept of the 5 act play is a very common one and underlies the structure of much drama. As a definition it is a little odd as it requires somewhat specialist knowledge, unlike “Act I” as part of the wordplay, which I’ve seen a number of times.
Much to enjoy here, and I also was looking for a reason for the ’em but I also concluded, like Roz, that it was there to invoke the expression in a music hall kind of way. Many thanks Pete and Julius.
Jack @11. Thanks for the info. I wondered if it might be something like that. Still not mad keen but it does make some sense.
As always a very enjoyable puzzle from Julius. For some reason I had not come across CRUCIVERBALIST before, but although I worked it out I don’t agree that cru (a parcel of land) equates with vintage. Thanks also to Julius and Pete
Thanks for the blog, dear Pete, and thanks to those who’ve left a comment.
The intention with KEYHOLE SURGERY was indeed to allude to the satire of theatre reviews newspapers used to publish using phrases such as “it’ll leave ’em rolling in the aisles”.
@Humph…I hate to resort to the mundane standard defence employed by crossword compilers but cru=vintage is supported by Chambers.
Best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
18ac: Chambers 2016 p 172 has cru n “a vineyard or group of vineyards; a vintage”. I see that I have crossed with Julius on this one.