Puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 1, 2025
I found this puzzle to be another treat from Julius. My top favorite clue is 1a (MEDAL) and I also especially like 11 (BASQUE COUNTRY), 24 (INKWELL) and 26 (KIPLING). And I am unable to fully parse the wordplay in 12 (THE JUMBLIES). Thank you, Julius..
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MEDAL |
Gong finally sounded in the middle of Dinner for One (5)
|
| [sounde]D in (in the middle of) MEAL (dinner for one), I applaud Julius for this clue and its reference to “Dinner for One”. In case you do not know of it, it is a gem of a comedy sketch from 1963 starring Freddie Frinton and May Warden that my German friends watch religiously every New Year | ||
| 4 | FOLK MUSIC |
Directed UK films about old Conservative country for Americans (4,5)
|
| O (old) and C (Conservative) in (about) anagram (directed) of UK FILMS | ||
| 9 | COLD WAR |
Vehicle packed with aged women’s frosty relations (4,3)
|
| OLD (aged) + W (woman) in (packed with) CAR (vehicle) | ||
| 10 | GORILLA |
Wrong — or ill-advised — to grapple with primate (7)
|
| Hidden word (to grapple with) | ||
| 11 | BASQUE COUNTRY |
Buy croquetas freshly cooked when touring northern part of Spain (6,7)
|
| N (northern) in (when touring) anagram (freshly cooked) of BUY CROQUETAS | ||
| 14 | MARX |
German economist discussing currency (4)
|
| Homophone (discussing) of “mark” (currency) | ||
| 15 | ABOVE ZERO |
Wild rave with booze, which is positive (5,4)
|
| Anagram (wild) of RAVE BOOZE | ||
| 18 | TETE A TETE |
The FT department regularly cancelled key private meeting (4,1,4)
|
| T[h[E [f]T [d]E[p]A[r]T[m]E[n]T [r]E??? | ||
| 19 | CUSS |
Swear in charismatic US Senator (4)
|
| Hidden word (in) | ||
| 21 | UNDER THE THUMB |
Oppressed in the digital sphere? (5,3,5)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 24 | INKWELL |
His nibs can occasionally be found in here (7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 26 | KIPLING |
A lover of India, Charles takes in cricket series there (7)
|
| IPL (cricket series there — that being Indian Premier League) in (takes in) KING (Charles) | ||
| 27 | HANDS DOWN |
Very simply, the crew’s depressed (5,4)
|
| HANDS (the crew) + DOWN (depressed) | ||
| 28 | RUSTY |
Dull, well-behaved prisoner getting time off (5)
|
| [t]RUSTY | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MACE |
Masculine energy surrounds Milan club (4)
|
| AC (Milan) in (surrounds) M (masculine) + E (energy) | ||
| 2 | DELIBERATED |
After taking counsel Dave gets discharged, set free (11)
|
| D[av]E + LIBERATED (set free) | ||
| 3 | LOWEST |
Most vulgar Suffolk resort often deserted (6)
|
| LOWEST[oft] (Suffolk resort often deserted) | ||
| 4 | FORTUNATE |
Happy speciality? Catching marine fish (9)
|
| TUNA (marine fish) in (catching) FORTE (speciality) | ||
| 5 | LOGIC |
Record extremes of idealistic reasoning (5)
|
| LOG (record) + I[dealisti]C | ||
| 6 | MARAUDER |
Pirate Dr Rameau streams (8)
|
| Anagram (streams) of DR RAMEAU | ||
| 7 | SOL |
Very large coin from yesteryear (3)
|
| SO (very) + L (:larger). A sol was a French coin centuries ago. | ||
| 8 | CRAZY HORSE |
Scary hero injured when tackling Zulu warrior legend (5,5)
|
| Z (Zulu) in (when tackling) anagram (injured) of SCARY HERO | ||
| 12 | THE JUMBLIES |
Lear work sits 21, not the 2nd Thursday but the 1st of January (3,8)
|
| THE THUMB (21) with the second TH (2nd Thursday) replaced by J[anuary] + LIES (???). I do not understand what “sits” does and where LIES comes from. “The Jumblies” is a poem written by Edward Lear, best known for his limericks. | ||
| 13 | AMATEURISH |
Ace buddy, upper-class former PM, endlessly bungling (10)
|
| A (ace) + MATE (buddy) + U (upper-class) + RISH[i] (former PM endlessly) | ||
| 16 | OVERTAKEN |
Public area former Mayor of London passed (9)
|
| OVERT (public) + A (area) + KEN (former Mayor of London, meaning Ken Livingstone) | ||
| 17 | HAIRLESS |
Bare hotel, very stuffy (8)
|
| H (hotel) + AIRLESS (very stuffy) | ||
| 20 | BUMPER |
Cadge a generous glass (6)
|
| BUM (cadge) + A (per) | ||
| 22 | HELLO |
Greeting husband plucking wings of chicken (5)
|
| H (husband) + [y]ELLO[w] | ||
| 23 | UGLY |
Hugh and Glyn when undressed not much to look at (4)
|
| [h]UG[h] [g]LY[n] | ||
| 25 | KIN |
Contents of penniless family members (3)
|
| [s]KIN[t] |
Lots to raise a smile in this Julius offering and a pangram to boot.
GORILLA was fun and BASQUE COUNTRY a delight while
TÊTE-A-TÊTE was admirable for its sheer length. Others I liked were INKWELL, AMATEURISH and FORTUNATE.
Many thanks to Julius and Pete – unable to help with THE JUMBLIES, having got as far as you, Pete.
LIES (sits) UNDER THE [TH]UMB (= 21) substituting the (not the . . . but the) 1st [letter] of J[ANUARY] for the 2nd [instance] of TH[URSDAY]
It is always nice to see Julius. He has a sense of humour and a lovely feel for the language.
I found this easy for a while, but NE and SE corners needed time due to some challenging clues, not to mention a handful of words I do not know. And I would never in a million years have equated FOLK MUSIC with American country music.
I loved LOGIC for its elegant surface. GORILLA was nicely hidden, as was CUSS which received another tick. TETE A TETE was wonderful and I also liked HANDS DOWN and DELIBERATED.
All parsed. I noted that I thought 12 did not fully work. It changes the 1st 2 of Thursday (not just the last 2nd). I am not sure I understood Cineraria’s 2nd instance .
Thank-you Julius and Pete
On second thought, ‘sits’ clues ‘lies’.
‘The church sits/lies in the rolling hills of …’ Cineraria got there first.
Perhaps now my favourite.
Martyn@3: There are two instances of “TH” in the wordplay: The first in TH[E], and the second in TH[UMB]. The clue instructs us to substitute “J” for the second instance of “TH.”
Thanks Julius and Pete. I think that 12dn has been sufficiently explained in earlier comments.
4ac should, I think, be O in anagram of UK FILMS + C.
14ac: a small typo here. It should of course be “marks” for the currency.
18ac: the final E in the answer comes from “key” in the clue.
Oh, so Th. is an abbreviation of Thursday! I see, thanks Cineraria @5. Clever clue.
Liked MEDAL, UNDER THE THUMB, KIPLING, THE JUMBLIES and HELLO.
Thanks Julius and Pete.
Thanks Julius for the weekend treat. I needed a reference to solve the nho THE JUMBLIES but I was able to ‘reverse parse’ it once I stumbled upon the solution. My top picks were COLD WAR, ABOVE ZERO, INKWELL, MACE, and HAIRLESS. Thanks Pete for the blog.