The monthly round-up of newsworthy events in crossword form. Find it to solve online or download and print at ft.com/crossword
A tour de force of cryptic crossword setting, with topical references neatly worked into plausible surface readings without compromising the grammar of the cryptic reading. Superb. Bravo, Guy!
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | DREAMLAND |
Hope to arrive at Heathrow? Delusion (9)
|
| DREAM (hope) + LAND (to arrive at Heathrow) | ||
| 10 | ANORA |
Any article except for the winning picture (5)
|
| AN OR A (any article except for ‘the’)
Anora won Best Picture at the Oscars this month. |
||
| 11 | RUMBA |
Cuban moves back to Havana — Brum’s rubbish (5)
|
| Anagram (rubbish) of the last letter of (back to) havanA + BRUM | ||
| 12 | NEWCASTLE |
Cup winners not seen before chose to play sides in league (9)
|
| NEW (not seen before) + CAST (chose to play) + first and last letter of (sides in) LeaguE
Newcastle beat Liverpool in the final of the Carabao Cup this month. Football, m’lud. |
||
| 13 | BUNBURY |
Bishop to disinter Oscar Wilde’s imaginary friend (7)
|
| B (bishop) + UNBURY (to disinter) | ||
| 14 | INGRATE |
Zelenskyy, according to 26A, botching it with anger (7)
|
| Anagram (botching) of IT + ANGER
Vance’s term for the Ukraine PM after he refused to grovel in a meeting at the White House. |
||
| 17 | TESLA |
Company once worth a trillion dollars turning stale (5)
|
| Anagram (turning) of STALE
The car company’s stock market value nosedived this month due to negative associations with its owner. |
||
| 18 | FOG |
Weather dangerous for driving, travel back on foot (3)
|
| GO (travel) reversed (back) on F (foot) | ||
| 19 | ROSTI |
Murphy makes this pancake, starters for Shrove Tuesday in Ireland (5)
|
| First letters of (starters for) Shrove Tuesday in ROI (Republic of Ireland)
Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Day in the UK, was on 4th March this year. Murphy is a slang word for a potato and rösti is a kind of potato pancake. |
||
| 21 | HAUTEUR |
Arrogance of hospital director (7)
|
| H (hospital) + AUTEUR (film director) | ||
| 23 | WHIPPET |
Cat possibly favourite Crufts winner (7)
|
| WHIP (cat, possibly) + PET (favourite)
Miuccia, a whippet, was named Best in Show at this year’s Crufts dog show. |
||
| 24 | MACADAMIA |
Retrospectively train Lovelace on Apple computer? That’s nutty (9)
|
| AIM (train) + ADA (Lovelace), reversed (retrospectively) on MAC (Apple computer) | ||
| 26 | VANCE |
40 year-old politician who’d like to be 48? (5)
|
| Cryptic definition
JD Vance, US Vice President, who would like to be President number 48 (Trump’s current presidency is the 47th). |
||
| 28 | SPOOL |
Coventry’s Olympic arena on end of news reel (5)
|
| POOL (Coventry’s Olympic arena) on the last letter (end) of newS | ||
| 29 | NUMSKULLS |
24D ordered to cut ineffective employees, ultimately idiots (9)
|
| Anagram (ordered) of MUSK (answer to 24 down) inserted in (to cut) NULL (ineffective) + last letter (ultimately) of employeeS
Musk in his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency sent an email to US civil servants ordering them to detail their achievements or face the sack. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ADAR |
Read a report covering last month in Israel (4)
|
| Hidden in reAD A Report
The 12th month in the Hebrew calendar, which roughly corresponds to March in the Gregorian calendar. |
||
| 2 | TERMINUS |
13D’s travelling companion returns after nine months in station (8)
|
| SUNI (13D’s travelling companion) reversed (returns) after TERM (nine months)
American astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore recently returned to Earth after being stuck on the International Space Station for nine months. |
||
| 3 | IMMACULATE |
Pristine // ship bumped in 18A (10)
|
| Two definitions
Container ship MV Stena Immaculate collided with oil tanker MV Solong in the North Sea last week in foggy conditions. |
||
| 4 | CARNEY |
New PM developed ardency, ruling out end of nationhood (6)
|
| Anagram (developed) of AR[d]ENCY less (ruling out) the last letter (end) of nationhooD
Mark Carney, new Canadian Prime Minister, has emphatically ruled out his country becoming a state of the US. |
||
| 5 | SAGA |
Getting included in Signal, oddly, Atlantic’s top story (4)
|
| Odd letters (oddly) of SiGnAl, with the first letter (top) of Atlantic getting included
The Atlantic magazine ran a story about comments made by top US Government officials on the Signal messaging service about airstrikes on Yemen after one of its journalists was mistakenly included in a group chat. |
||
| 6 | CONTRA |
Argument against criminal having pulled up gold toilet? (6)
|
| CON (criminal) with ART (gold toilet) reversed (pulled up)
Michael Jones and Frederick Doe were convicted this month for the theft of a solid gold toilet from Blenheim Palace in 2019. The toilet was a fully functional artwork created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. |
||
| 7 | TAME |
Uninspiring, Tuchel’s first match — good to miss that (4)
|
| First letter of Tuchel + [g]AME (match) less G (good)
Football coach Thomas Tuchel took charge of the England men’s team in a competitive match for the first time this month. |
||
| 9 | DAWNING |
Brightening up initially dreary canvas shelter (7)
|
| First letter (initially) of Dreary + AWNING (canvas shelter) | ||
| 13 | BUTCH |
Manly yet superficially childish (5)
|
| BUT (yet) + first and last letters (superficially) of ChildisH
American astronaut Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore. |
||
| 15 | GORDIEVSKY |
Russian spy passing on road through Kyiv goes astray (10)
|
| RD (road) inserted in (through) an anagram (astray) of KYIV GOES
Oleg Gordievsky, KGB officer turned double agent, died this month aged 86. |
||
| 16 | EDICT |
Credit to Reform, dumping fifth member from Gt Yarmouth — boss’s order (5)
|
| Anagram (to reform) of C[r]EDIT, less the fifth letter from gt yaRmouth
Rupert Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth, has been dumped by his party, Reform UK, following an investigation into harassment of female staff. |
||
| 18 | FOREMAN |
Two-time world champion, on account of getting title back (7)
|
| FOR (on account of) + NAME (title) reversed (back)
Boxer George Foreman, twice heavyweight World Champion, died this month aged 76. |
||
| 20 | SUPINELY |
Always wasting time, Putin’s let off by Yankee in a weak manner (8)
|
| Anagram (off) of PU[t]IN’S LE[t] less both the Ts (always wasting ‘time’) + Y (yankee)
Nicely waspish reference to Trump’s craven behaviour in dealings with the Russian president. |
||
| 22 | UNCLOG |
Clear diary after endless lunch (6)
|
| LOG (diary) after [l]UNC[h] with the first and last letters removed (endless) | ||
| 23 | WHAMMY |
Shock, women like meat (6)
|
| W (women) + HAMMY (like meat) | ||
| 24 | MUSK |
Smell for 17? (4)
|
| Cryptic double definition
Alluding to the owner of Tesla. |
||
| 25 | DOLE |
Benefits // woe (4)
|
| Two definitions – the second somewhat archaic
Reference to the recent cuts in PIP disability benefits introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. |
||
| 27 | EAST |
Heading to Moscow from Washington? (4)
|
| Cryptic-ish definition?
If there’s any other wordplay here, I can’t see it. |
Private Eye’s cover had Putin saying he wanted to keep all his gains, including the White House, and I wondered about that for EAST.
Heathrow was in the news after a fire at an electrical substation shut it down for 24 hours so chaos and recriminations ensuing, hence DREAMLAND.
Fun puzzle, thank you to Widdersbel and Guy.
Excellent news puzzle by Guy. Thanks.
Superb blog by Widdersbel. Thanks.
EAST
A wild thought:
M (heading to Moscow) from DC (Washington)—->M is East of DC in the alphabetical order?
(This is a down clue tho).
Not sure.
Guess it doesn’t work that way, as it’s DC but not CD.
The Atlantic story dropped on Monday, and hadn’t really reverberated until Tuesday. That means that Guy put this together in the last half-week, making it all the more impressive.
(I’ve been an Atlantic subscriber for decades, and that was certainly their biggest scoop I can recall. They don’t really do scoops, normally–they’re more about in-depth reporting, news analysis, and arts and culture. So yes, definitely their top story!)
27D The latitude of Washington, Tyne & Wear is 54.9°N, and that’s not very far off that of Moscow, which is 55.8°N. Is that perhaps what Guy had in mind? Not cryptic, except for the posible misdirection to Washington DC (which is a lot further south). Just a thought.
Thanks Guy and Widdersbel
I thought this was simply superb.
If, as I read elsewhere today, Guy is in other places Filbert, that would explain the quality of the clueing and the ability to hone the clues and solutions to immediate events.
Rather late to the party today. I did get up to solve the puzzle in the early early hours, in a bout of insomnia – fortuitously as it happened, as I was reminded that I had failed to forward my clocks!
Did manage to get to our Mothering Sunday service and thence to my grandson’s, for a superb four-generational lunch.
I’m in total accord with Widdersbel’s final paragraph and must add that his blog does the puzzle full justice. ‘Superb, Bravo!’ to you, too.
Huge thanks to both – I so look forward to these puzzles and continue to hope that the number of solvers who enjoy them far outnumbers that of those who comment here.
[Simon S @6 – I’m intrigued by your comment: I can’t find confirmation of it here: https://www.fifteensquared.net/setters-2o/ ]
Eileen @ 7
It was a post by Widdersbel on Bluesky earlier today, in response to amoeba saying they’d enjoyed this puzzle – then there was a comment, I forget where, that this was known but not widely.
I agree with your comment about the quality / enjoyment of the puzzle vs the number of comments.
Many thanks, Simon – I do hate to miss anything! (That explains a lot.)
I learnt this from someone mentioning it on social media a while ago – I forget who but think it was another FT setter – but no, it doesn’t seem to be widely known. Perhaps he likes it that way – in which case, apologies for blowing your cover, Guy.
I endorse Eileen@7 and all other posters’ praise. Thank you Guy and Wisddersbel.
Oleg Gordievsky was one of the most impactful KGB officers ever to defect to the West. At a critical juncture in the Cold War, his intelligence played a crucial role in averting a potential Third World War, which could have escalated into a nuclear conflict. REST IN PEACE with thanks from the few left standing at FaireSansDire & Pemberton’s People.