Puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 4, 2025
This proved to be a quick solve for me despite one answer being a new word at 11 (NOVATE). My first in was 20 (ECRU) and 11 my last. My favourite clues are 2 (JUNIPER) and 5d (WICKED) even though I have seen essentially the same clue at least once before.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MAJORITY |
Officer has the item before end of day, greater part (8)
|
| MAJOR (officer) + IT (the item) + [da]Y | ||
| 5 | WICKED |
Harmful, like a candle? (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | DEN |
Boy is lacking room for study (3)
|
| DEN[is] (boy, is lacking) | ||
| 9 | FOR EXAMPLE |
Like ten inside frame with pole collapsing (3,7)
|
| X (ten) in (inside) anagram (collapsing) of FRAME POLE | ||
| 10 | TOPPLING |
Overbalancing very quietly with Heather after two, we hear (8)
|
| TO (homophone of “two”) + PP (very quietly) + LING (heather) | ||
| 11 | NOVATE |
Replace with new contract at base after less than half a month (6)
|
| NOV[ember] + AT (at) + E (base, that is of natural logarithms) | ||
| 12 | EZRA |
Pound perhaps that’s found in The Bible (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | QUARTER DAY |
Six hours in which to pay (7,3)
|
| Double definition with the second referring to any of four days in the year when certain payments become due. | ||
| 17 | MAYONNAISE |
Many a noise disturbs dressing (10)
|
| Anagram (disturbs) of MANY A NOISE | ||
| 20 | ECRU |
Part of the crust is light fawn (4)
|
| Hidden word (part of) | ||
| 23 | COUPON |
Masterstroke on ticket (6)
|
| COUP (masterstroke) + ON (on) | ||
| 24 | BREEDING |
Keeping the strain going (8)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 25 | THOUGHT OUT |
Considered idea old hat (7,3)
|
| THOUGHT (idea) + OUT (old hat) | ||
| 26 | KIT |
Christopher’s toy not European (3)
|
| KIT[e] (toy not European) | ||
| 27 | REASON |
Excuse concerning a junior (6)
|
| RE (concerning) + A (a) + SON (junior) | ||
| 28 | GRANDEUR |
Dignity of older relative and daughter beside French street going the wrong way (8)
|
| GRAN (older relative) + D (daugther) + RUE (French street) backwards (going the wrong way) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MIDSTREAM |
Farthest one can be from the bank (9)
|
| This seems like a straight definition to me | ||
| 2 | JUNIPER |
Juliet removed unripe shrub (7)
|
| J (Juliet) + anagram (removed) of UNRIPE | ||
| 3 | RAFFLE |
Draw fairy a long way off coming up (6)
|
| ELF (fairy) + FAR (a long way off) all backwards (coming up) | ||
| 4 | TARANTULA |
Soldier hurried with you in France to Los Angeles on seeing hairy horror (9)
|
| TA (soldier, i.e. territorial) + RAN (hurried) + TU (you in France) + LA (Los Angeles) | ||
| 5 | WHATNOT |
Shelves something that is not important (7)
|
| Double definition with the second referring to a a portable stand with shelves, used for displaying ornaments, etc | ||
| 6 | CAPE VERDE |
Green European cloak first from the islands (4,5)
|
| CAPE (cloak) + VERDE (Green European). ‘Verde’ is the word for green in Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. | ||
| 7 | ELECTRA |
Choose artist, one who’s related to Clytemnestra (7)
|
| ELECT (choose) + RA (artist) | ||
| 13 | AMORPHOUS |
Shapeless poor ham chopped up before us (9)
|
| Anagram (chopped up) of POOR HAM + US (us) | ||
| 15 | RESERVOIR |
Lake potentially erosive between two rivers (9)
|
| Anagram (potentially) of EROSIVE in (between) R R (two rivers) | ||
| 16 | YOUNGSTER |
Yankee prepared sturgeon for junior (9)
|
| Y (Yankee) + anagram (prepared) of STURGEON | ||
| 18 | APOSTLE |
Spoon afterwards found in drink (7)
|
| POST (afterwards) in (found in) ALE (drink). An apostle spoon is one decorated with the image of an apostle. | ||
| 19 | NONAGON |
Figure of horse in middle of day (7)
|
| NAG (horse) in (in) NOON (middle of day) | ||
| 21 | CRINKLE |
Cold icy floor leads the French to make creases (7)
|
| C (cold) + RINK (icy floor) + LE (the French) | ||
| 22 | SEXTON |
Church officer employed unknown number inside (6)
|
| X (unknown number) in (inside) SET ON (employed) |
Pangram. I could not think how to parse DEN, of all things, so thanks for that.
NOVATE
I think the def should include the ‘contract’.
TARANTULA
soldier=TA…Is this correct? Should it have been ‘soldiers’?
MIDSTREAM
Mildly cryptic if one thinks about the bank as a financial institution
for a while. I was thinking it was something to do with RE (mid stREam),
but there doesn’t seem to be anything of that sort.
Thanks Pedrock and Pete.
Answers came before parsing in many cases.
Liked RAFFLE, CRINKLE
I could not parse DEN either, also SEXTON, so thanks Pete. Not sure I like “removed” as an anagram indicator, nor do I like “two” as a homonym for “to” in TOPPLING, given how the answer is pronounced. I had no chance of parsing QUARTER DAY as the payments side of the double definition is foreign to me. APOSTLE and NONAGON were Jorums
Thanks Pedrock and Pete
Thanks Pedrock for a solid crossword. It took me awhile to solve this & I couldn’t parse DEN or QUARTER DAY fully. I missed the pangram. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Yes, me too, and Denis minus ‘is’ is as basic as it gets … sometimes it’s the little things … Nothing too strange today. Novate was new, but I knew Quarter Day from mrs ginf’s Morland series (35 vols, from c1430 to post-WW11 !). Ta P and P, now to check out the Indy.
Fun puzzle – as someone who knew what the Quarter Days were, in case anyone is interested:
Lady Day (25 March, the Annunciation),
midsummer’s day (21 June),
Michaelmas (29 September – when the devil casts his cloak over blackberries) and
Christmas Day.
Which is why the hiring fairs at those times of year – they were when rent and contracts ran from. And when Britain moved from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian under the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, it was 11 days behind, so skipped those 11 days (cue riots and demands for the days back), which moved the tax year from 25 March to 5 April.
Thank you to Pedrock and Pete Maclean.
Thanks to Pedrock and Pete for a great start to the week.
For 6d, (in pedant’s corner )verdi is green in Italian and verde is green in Spanish. I have been watching some hilarious Victor Borge shows when he dismisses Guiseppe Verdi as Joe Green. Borge had a long career using the same jokes but he never fails to make me laugh.
NONAGON was a jorum for me too.
We solved this pretty quickly with no problems. Just a minor quibble – KVa@2 suggests ‘soldier’ should be ‘soldiers’; we would go further and suggest ‘former soldiers’ as the TA was replaced by the Volunteer Reserve a few years ago.
Thanks, Pedrock and Pete.
This will teach me not to be pedantic. I had just solved Monday’s puzzle and mistakenly thanked for that rather than the Weekend puzzle. I apologise.
This seemed fairly straightforward despite learning about quarter days and apostle spoons. Thanks Pedrock and Pete.
Having taught contract law once or twice (I spent seven years (2010-17) teaching in a paralegal-studies program), I’ve encountered novation, but I’ve never seen the verb form NOVATE in the wild. Easy enough to derive, and I’m sure it’s used in some contexts. The apostle spoons were new to me, though.
Thanks Pedrock and Pete
I came across ‘novate{ 20-odd years ago: in construction, if a firm carrying out works goes under then the contract is novated to a new company without there necessarily being a tender process.