Puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 24, 2026
This is my one thousandth blog for Fifteensquared. Over a period of 20 years I can chalk up blogs for 998 FT Weeked Puzzles plus two jumbos. I have actually been solving the FT’s Weekender for around 40 years. And now I have decided to retire — this will be my last blog. One reason for stepping down is that I want, at age 76, to simplify my life. And I am doing so in several ways. Another reason is that I find myself making more and more mistakes in my blogs. I will keep on doing the puzzle each weekend and may well pop up in the comments here. Fifteensquared has assembled a rota to replace me. I am very grateful that they are not replacing me with an AI!
My first blog was of a puzzle by Cinephile (a.k.a. Araucaria and John Graham), my favourite setter of that time. I miss him. My second was the great Cincinnus. And third was glorious Mudd. And these were prize puzzles. I have one win, a beautiful Pelikan pen, from my early days of solving. I have had some adventures along the way. One was jumping off a train at a stop in Austria to dash to the station kiosk, grap the day’s FT and then make it back onto the train before it left. Another was meeting up with a frequent commenter when we happened to be in the same part of the world at the same time.
Sometimes I wonder if we are in a golden age of cryptics. Top quality puzzles are available online at no cost. In the FT we have a very impressive stable of setters and, no doubt, in the Guardian too. There are great tools on the Internet to help solvers: dictionaries, thesauruses, pattern-matching tools, the Guardian’s new Cluesletter, Wikipedia, John Halpern’s Zooms, and of course Fifteensquared which was, I believe, the first source for setters to get feedback from solvers. The last also brings Sloggers and Betters together (in York as I write this). What’s missing? A new generation of solvers if what I hear is correct. Are we making solving too easy? What can we do to encourage more? I wish I had some ideas but I do not.
I thank all the people who have added value to my blogs with comments. Please keep it up. And I apologize if I have failed to respond to some comments when I probably should have. And I thank all the setters for their genius work with the hope that we can give them a boost knowing that they are not highly paid for their output.
And so to the puzzle…
I found this to be a good challenge. My first-in was 6a (BLURB), I finished with 26 (SIR) and found 15 (DEAD SET AGAINST) the most difficult clue. My favourites are 3 (SIXTIES) and 27 (AHEAD). Thank you Guy for this puzzle and to BC and PG for their help over many years.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TOPSHELF |
Adult quiet when introduced to Santa’s deputy? (3-5)
|
| TOP (adult) + SH (quiet) + ELF (Santa’s deputy) | ||
| 6 | BLURB |
Short description of Britpop band: British (5)
|
| BLUR (Britpop band) + B (British) | ||
| 10 | BOTOX |
Contents of pots in crate paralysing agent (5)
|
| OT (contents of pots) in (in) BOX (crate) | ||
| 11 | DIRECTORY |
Book that lists dreadful Conservatives (9)
|
| DIRE (dreadful) + C TORY (Conservatives) | ||
| 12 | SEE FIT |
Report of marine attack — think it’s right? (3,3)
|
| Homophone (report) of “sea” + FIT (attack) | ||
| 13 | BEAR DOWN |
Hair adolescent starts growing with personal approach (4,4)
|
| BEAR[d] + DOWN (hair) | ||
| 16 | DEAD SET AGAINST |
Big-time con killed group over street (4,3,7)
|
| DEAD (killed) + SET (group) + AGAIN (over) + ST (street) | ||
| 17 | NOT BAT AN EYELID |
Appear unsurprised when Toad in a Bentley crashes (3,3,2,6)
|
| Anagram (crashes) of TOAD IN A BENTLEY | ||
| 22 | IN TANDEM |
One after another covered by spray-paint and emulsion (2,6)
|
| Hidden word (covered by) | ||
| 23 | BUNSEN |
Scientist’s heater rolls one direction then another (6)
|
| BUNS (rolls) + E (one direction) + N (another) | ||
| 25 | MISBESTOW |
Item boss swapped with wife’s present in error (9)
|
| Anagram (swapped) of ITEM BOSS + W (wife) | ||
| 27 | AHEAD |
I see openings for expert AI developers in the future (5)
|
| AH (I see) + E[xpert] A[I] D[evelopers] | ||
| 28 | CARDS |
Bridge perhaps taking swine across river (5)
|
| R (river) in (taking across) CADS (swine) | ||
| 29 | SPECTATE |
Watch flood swallowing up Queen’s centre court (8)
|
| [qu]E[en] + CT (court) together in (swallowing up) SPATE (flood) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ON THE WAY OUT |
14 in Transit not possible? (2,3,3,3)
|
| ON THE WAY (in transit) + OUT (not possible). Why does ‘Transit’ have an initial capital? | ||
| 3 | SIXTIES |
What goes with swinging — is it sex parties? (7)
|
| Anagram (parties) of IS IT SEX | ||
| 4 | EDDY |
Alternating current? (4)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 5 | FIRE ENGINE |
OK on fringes of one tricky green, putter out (4,6)
|
| I (one) + anagram (tricky) of GREEN in (on fringes of) FINE (OK) with a neat cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | BACARDI |
Spirit of Shakespeare bored by most of Act I (7)
|
| AC[t] in (bored by) BARD (Shakespeare) + I (I) | ||
| 7 | UNO |
28 needed for this game, socially acceptable number (3)
|
| U (socially acceptable) + NO (number) | ||
| 8 | BEYOND |
Too difficult for most of you, cutting flex (6)
|
| YO[u] in (cutting) BEND (flex) | ||
| 9 | ABUSED |
American driven to school there gets sworn at (6)
|
| A (American) + BUSED (driven to school) | ||
| 14 | OBSOLESCENT |
Nasty whiff about fish smell, having use-by date (11)
|
| BO (nasty whiff) backwards (about) + SOLE (fish) + SCENT (smell) | ||
| 15 | STATUETTES |
Duke at it regularly in America? Figures (10)
|
| [d]U[k]E[a]T[i]T in (in) STATES (America) | ||
| 18 | BONKERS |
Senior energy boss upended potty (7)
|
| SR (senior) + E (energy) + KNOB (boss) all backwards (upended) | ||
| 19 | YOU WAIT |
Warning sheep had to listen to (3,4)
|
| YOU (homophone of “ewe ate”) | ||
| 20 | DENUDE |
Bare part appeared unedifying from behind (6)
|
| Hidden word (part) reversal (from behind) | ||
| 21 | BIG MAC |
Magic worked starting with a bit of beef? (3,3)
|
| B (a bit of beef) + anagram (worked) of MAGIC. Do I have this right? Seems like ‘beef’ is overused. | ||
| 24 | TWEE |
Only half of X’s contributors charming (4)
|
| Double definition with the first cluing TWEE[ters] | ||
| 26 | SIR |
Reduced pay increase upset teacher (3)
|
| RIS[e] (reduced pay increase) backwards (upset). Brits use the term ‘rise’ when Americans would say ‘raise’. |
Thanks Guy for this puzzle and Pete for everything over the years.
11ac: DIRE (dreadful) + C + TORY (Conservatives)
13ac: I had this as BEARD (Hair … growing) + OWN (personal)
4dn: I originally had TIDE. I think that is a far better answer to the clue, but does not fit with TOP-SHELF at 1ac.
21dn I think is meant to be a complete “& lit”.
Pete: What a remarkable run. Thank you so much for your contributions and insights. I think so far I have just over 200 blogs published, and I cannot even remember back to when I started now. One thousand seems a very long way off, if indeed I make it that far. I hope that you will carry on as part of the institutional memory of 225.
Pete,
I’d like to thank you for your very helpful and insightful blogs which were such a great aid to me when I first started doing cryptics about five years ago and are still a fantastic resource today.
Congratulations on your landmark blog! I’ll miss your informative and always courteous blogging style. I look forward to seeing your comments in future and wish you all the best as you put aside your Pelikan pen and dictionaries!
Like your anecdote about leaping from the train to grab an FT for your onward journey!
Thanks Guy for the weekend entertainment. This took me several attempts to finish but it was worth my time due to clues like NOT BAT AN EYE, IN TANDEM, AHEAD, BIG MAC, and TWEE. And thanks a million Pete for this and all your other blogs that filled in my many parsing gaps over the years.
I was busy this weekend and missed the puzzle, but I’m so glad I had a glance at 15 squared.
Congratulations Pete but, more importantly, many thanks for your wonderful contributions. I started experimenting with crosswords in the weekend FT, and now try to do the crossword every day. Your blogs were a very major reason for me turning the trial into a regular hobby, one that brings me so much enjoyment.
I will miss your weekend blogs.
Congratulations Pete! 1000 blogs? Wow. It’s a phenomenal achievement.
Thank you very much for your extraordinary contribution to 225.
We will miss your blogs.
Best wishes.
Thanks again Pete!
Dear Pete , congratulations on your grand milestone , a great way to bow out . Enjoy your retirement and please comment if you have the time so we do not miss you too much . Voluntary work is my favourite human quality and you have helped so many people with such a kind , humorous and courteous style .
Thanks for the blog , very enjoyable set of clues with some clever ideas .
TOPSHELF – I like Santa having a top elf as his deputy .
SIXTIES – nice use of the old and newer meaning for swinging . I like the old term but I can’t use it any more .
FIRE ENGINE – a great definition to go with the golf in the wordplay .
Transit a very popular make of van from Ford so the capital trying to mislead us .
Others have said it all so I’ll just add my congratulations and thanks for the many years I have read your blogs.
I can only repeat the praise and thanks for all you have done to enhance my enjoyment of the FT puzzles. Quite exceptional.
Congratulations and a fine round number (in base 10 at least) on which to bow out – 1000 blogs should earn you a statue of an M (or possibly a K, or a G, or if it were Qaos possibly CO…). Thank you for helping to make fifteensquared a rare and wonderful part of the internet.
PB@1: I also had “tide” at 1dn which threw me off the sent of the excellent “top-shelf” for a long time.
A thousand blogs is an extraordinary achievement, and I have greatly appreciated all the assistance I have had from you both in the blogs and privately over the years – you’ve helped me progress from seeking help on perhaps half of the solutions, to usually getting down to the last couple and sometimes solving them all before frustration sets in. Thanks for the help, and for your friendship over the years, and I wish you a happy though far from invisible retirement.
Comment #13
Dear Pete, I’ve only been reading the blog in the last few years, so I haven’t had the benefit of most of yours. That is a huge feat of generosity over a long time. Thank you very much. I wouldn’t persist with trying to solve the crosswords without being able to get an explanation of the ones I couldn’t parse. Best wishes for your “retirement”.
Dear Pete, I’ve only been reading the blog in the last few years, (not sure I count as one of a “new generation of solvers” though!) so I haven’t had the benefit of most of yours. That is a huge feat of generosity over a long time. Thank you very much. I wouldn’t persist with trying to solve the crosswords without being able to get an explanation of the ones I couldn’t parse. Best wishes for your “retirement”.
Congratulations, Pete, on your 1000th blog, and thank you for all your amazing blogs.
I enjoyed this puzzle, thank you to Guy and Pete for the blog.
I spent so much time struggling with the Saturday Guardian Prize crossword that I didn’t get round to this one. But I’m glad I came to read the blog and found out about your retirement.
I doubt I would have progressed far with cryptics if not for this site which I discovered when I started doing cryptics back in the first lockdown.
I much enjoy tackling the puzzles and am very grateful to all the bloggers here for their help.
Thanks so much Pete and enjoy your retirement.
Pete, back in 2006 you very kindly test-solved one of my puzzles which went on to be my first in the FT. Many thanks for that, and for your amazing work over the years on 15×2. May you have a long and happy retirement.
Why don’t we do it all again
And drive a Transit down to Spain
Grazie mille Pete for your long service, best wishes for retirement, and long live FT puzzles!
Thank you Pete for your many years of service to this community. You have helped me enormously over this time. Enjoy your “retirement”!
Thanks of course to Guy for the puzzle, which I found hard. I got bogged down with TIDE as well,
and was a DNF until resorting to electronic help.
Best wishes
That’s a very fine number on which to bow out. Many congratulations, and thank you for your dedication to the cause! (And it’s good to know that the Indy’s Filbert lives on as Guy in the FT.)
Pete – I have read your blogs for many years without commenting. But on this occasion I will, in order to thank you for the enormous effort you always make to be entertaining as well as informative. You will be much missed by a large number of FT readers as well as those who do the crossword but do not read the paper. Have a great retirement.
Thanks both.
“I wish I had some ideas but I do not”. I’m backed up quite badly on FT puzzles but I know that you will see this Pete howsoever late it may be.
I have previously mooted on this platform (but not often and now some time ago) that if a version of a cryptic was available with all the crossers installed it might catch the attention of the putative solver, and would carry with it the prospect of that combination of success and bewilderment which is solvers’ catnip. I’m not expressing this very well, but we have all of us (?) had an early experience of leaping to a solution based on available crossers in (I’m gonna say) Grannie’s newspaper, and then had the parsing explained to us or figured it out for ourselves. And we were hooked….
But the tabula rasa is very off-putting. With your connections and standing in the world of crosswords you might be able to catch an appropriate ear for a trial to be initiated.
Go raibh míle maith agat.
Thank you so much, Pete, for your generous guidance over the years.
In these darkening times, your blog has been a rare well of light. I’m in awe of your skill and generosity. Many thanks!
Pete
Thank you. I hope you enjoy your retirement and that we still see you here sometimes as one of us in the peanut gallery.
Anil
And thank you from me, another late arrival at the crossword ball who wouldn’t be solving anything without the pro bono education from you and the other 225 bloggers.
May you continue to enjoy solving – and occasionally comment here.
Than you, Pete.
Always helpful, informative and generous and, of course, a gentleman.
Congratulations. Retire well.
Hugh
Thank you, Pete, from a longstanding aspiring cruciverbalist, and a relative newcomer to Fifteen Squared.
I’m an even later arrival! First time commenter,
year-long reader. Thank you Pete! Even though I have clearly read only a fraction of your 20 years of work.