Puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 31, 2026
Following Pete Maclean’s “retirement” last week and before we wheel in a new team of bloggers. This week you’ve got me.
I don’t do the FT very often but I found this one quite approachable. Leonidas’s clues remind me very much of Tramp in The Guardian and, if I didn’t know better, I’d think they were the same person. I always like good surface reading and I think that every clue has a beautiful surface.
Lovely, delightful puzzle. And now, over to the team who’ll, hopefully do Pete Maclean proud.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WARRANT |
Call for Republican colonist at end of conflict (7)
|
| WAR (conflict)+Republican+ANT (worker) | ||
| 5 | SQUALL |
Small bird avoiding isle before large storm (6)
|
| Small+QUA[i]L (bird)+Large | ||
| 8 | INTERLUDE |
Break tile under fitting (9)
|
| TILE UNDER (anag: fitting) | ||
| 9 | DRAPE |
Dora periodically scrubbed mirror cover with cloth (5)
|
| D[o]R[a] (periodically scrubbed)+APE (mirror) | ||
| 11 | TRIAD |
Criminal outfit using diamonds not left in case (5)
|
| TRIA[l] (case) with Left replacing Diamonds | ||
| 12 | HINDRANCE |
Female hare skirting northern block (9)
|
| HIND (female)+Northern+RACE (hare) | ||
| 13 | EXACTING |
Diff icult playing with former partner at the front (8)
|
| EX (former partner)+ACTING (playing) | ||
| 15 | SEADOG |
Salt rolled leaves Bill’s stuff ing (3,3)
|
| GOES (leaves; rev: rolled) around AD (bill) | ||
| 17 | LOCKER |
Stevedores maybe exposed on middle of unlit key (6)
|
| [un]L[it] (middle of)+[d]OCKER[s] (stevedores; exposed) | ||
| 19 | OUTRIGHT |
Direct cycling tout taking apparatus back to Bath (8)
|
| TOUT (anag: cycling) around RIG (kit)+[bat]H (back to) | ||
| 22 | WOLFSBANE |
Nick’s run around European plant (9)
|
| NABS (nicks)+FLOW (run) rev: around + European | ||
| 23 | MANIC |
Hysterical male boss? (5)
|
| MAN (bale)+IC (in charge; loosely boss, which explains the question mark)) | ||
| 24 | RUPEE |
Some from the East keep urbanising bit of Goa (5)
|
| keEP URbanising (hidden: some; rev: from the east) | ||
| 25 | SCEPTICAL |
Muddled tale PC Charlie is questioning (9)
|
| TALE PC Charlie IS (anag: muddled) | ||
| 26 | TOMTOM |
Instrument volume reduced twice (3-3)
|
| TOM[e] (volume)+TOM[e] (volume) | ||
| 27 | ROOKERY |
Castle close to Spain tracks where eggs are laid (7)
|
| ROOK (castle, in chess)+Española (Spain)+RY (tracks; short for RailwaY) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WHISTLEBLOWER |
Game insurgent recalled catching mean man in black? (7-6)
|
| WHIST (game)+REBEL (insurgrnt; rev: recalled) around LOW (mean)
Cryptic definition; a football referee blows a whistle and often wears black |
||
| 2 | RETSINA |
Drink clarets in ancient bottles (7)
|
| claRETS IN Ancient (hidden: bottles) | ||
| 3 | ACRID |
Starters from alehouse come with free bitter (5)
|
| Alehouse Come (starters from)+RID (free) | ||
| 4 | TOUGHENS |
Strengthens layers beneath oxygen aboard boat (8)
|
| TUG (boat) around Oxygen+HENS (layers) | ||
| 5 | SIENNA |
Harry’s aunt is climbing in shade (6)
|
| (Princess) ANNE (Prince Harry’s aunt)+IS rev: climbing | ||
| 6 | UNDERWEAR |
Boxers perhaps running around were missing the ring? (9)
|
| AR[o]UND WERE minus O (ring); anag: running | ||
| 7 | LEARNED |
Thin journalist compressing river sage… (7)
|
| LEAN around River+EDitor (journalist) | ||
| 10 | ENERGETICALLY |
…chopped celery and gelatin with zest (13)
|
| CEKERY GELATIN (anag: chopped) | ||
| 14 | TEENSIEST |
Most diminutive youths sleep during the day unclothed (9)
|
| TEENS (youths)+[s]IEST[a] (sleep during the day) | ||
| 16 | MULETEER |
Setter pinning university permit on returning driver (8)
|
| University+LET (permit) inside ME (setter)+RE (on; rev: returning) | ||
| 18 | CALYPSO |
Last of classic plays about old Homeric character (7)
|
| [classi]C PLAYS (anag: about)+Old | ||
| 20 | GANACHE |
Sweet mixture in grand case of Austrian pine (7)
|
| Grand+A[ustria]N (case of)+ACHE (pine) | ||
| 21 | RANSOM |
Leaderless country’s raised second extortionate demand (6)
|
| [i]RANS (country’s; leaderless)+MO (second; rev: raised) | ||
| 23 | MOTTO |
Saying too much in half of memo (5)
|
| [me]MO (half of) around OTT (over the top: too much) |
Gave up on 22a and didn’t enter the answer for 16d as it was a NHO, although would have got it right with a gun to my head. Those 2 kind of stood out to me as distinctly difficult, and WOLFSBANE particularly as, for me at least, the wordplay although absolutely fine, was not the most straightforward. I guess anyone who knows the word would write it in with the checking letters completed, but it foxed me unfortunately.
Thanks v much Ken for the blog and Leonidas for the puzzle.
Thanks Leonidas and kenmac for filling in this week. I just have one minor point on the parsing of 19ac, where I took “cycling tout” as indicating specifically one of OUTT, UTTO, or TTOU, rather than allowing any anagram of “tout”.
A nice puzzle and, in my humble opinion, a quality blog. I wrote “several nice surfaces”, although I am not sure I agree that every clue was such. I best liked RETSINA and ENERGETICALLY.
The TRIAD clue read as a clue for TRAIL to me, and thank you for help with the parsing of HINDRANCE.
Thanks Leonidas and kenmac
Some splendidly chewy wordplay and great clues all round.
I often think it would be fair to include ‘mean’ (low) in the definition for 1d!
Thanks Leonidas and Kenmac (agree with your comment on the blog, Martyn.
Started off well but took a while on the last few and could not parse WOLFSBANE, HINDRANCE and SQUALL – and of course the latter in particular looks really obvious now……
Liked: WARRANT, LOCKER, WHISTLEBLOWER, TEENSIEST, MULETEER
Thanks Leonidas and Kenmac