A challenge from IO that was well outside my limits.
I can’t rate this puzzle as the difficulty level for me was far too high to solve without help. The puzzles that I rate at difficulty levels 10 are usually puzzles that took me a long time to fully solve or in which I had one or two clues unsolved. I got to around 40% of this one before conceding ( which means others here would have found it much easier than the usual IO offering ).
Given that its a boxing day puzzle, there are several references to weight categories from the sport of the same name.
Some parsings can be improved upon so looking for elucidation from the experts.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | UNSAFE |
Insecure Ryder Cup team employing new iron (6)
|
| [ N ( new ) in USA ( ryder cup team ) ] FE ( iron ) | ||
| 4 | MEEKER |
Increasingly submissive timekeepers riled out of spite (6)
|
| [ tiMeKEEpERs ( without the letters of ‘SPITE’ ) ]* | ||
| 9 | SOOTY TERN |
Flyer Spoonerised the part everyone plays in physics lab (5,4)
|
| spoonerism of TUTTI ( part everyone plays ) CERN ( physics lab ) | ||
| 10 | STRAW |
Set about, with skill, the beginning of sherry trifle (5)
|
| reverse of [ W ( with ) ART ( skill ) S ( Sherry, first letter ) ] | ||
| 11 | WLTM |
What makes I’m at a low ebb periodically an appeal for company… (4)
|
| hidden, reversed, alternate letters of “..iM aT a LoW..” ; short for Would Like To Meet | ||
| 12 | ATOM |
You can’t further subdivide this Encyclopaedia (Vol.1 of two)? (4)
|
| cryptic def; 1st vol of the encyclopaedia could be from A TO M, and second from N TO Z | ||
| 13 | LIGHT |
Idle rest day (5)
|
| cryptic def? | ||
| 16 | FEATHER |
Birds, as a whole, are frightened by the parts (7)
|
| THE in FEAR ( ~ are frightened ) | ||
| 17 | MONARCH |
Ruler against having border crossing (7)
|
| ON ( against ) in MARCH ( border ) | ||
| 18 | CRUISER |
In sound, helps to sail a yacht (7)
|
| sounds like CREWS ( helps to sail ) A | ||
| 20 | BRIDGER |
Coward’s role in poky bedroom: bedding a range of high-ups (7)
|
| BR ( bedroom ) containing RIDGE ( a range of high-ups ); refers to noel coward’s role in the italian job as mr.bridger | ||
| 21 | MIAOW |
West End Oscar’s cutting about — that’s very spiteful (5)
|
| reverse of [ { W ( West ) AIM ( end ) } containing O ( Oscar ) ] | ||
| 22 | MINI |
Reduced 60-sec cycles (4)
|
| cryptic def; 60-sec = 1 MIN , cycling i.e. first to the last | ||
| 23 | GSOH |
…requirement that helps to make anything so hilarious? (4)
|
| cryptic def; hidden in “..anythinG SO Hilarious” ; short for Good Sense Of Humor | ||
| 25 | SUPER |
Suffering reverse concerning matter of exceptional quality (5)
|
| reverse of RE ( concerning ) PUS ( matter ) | ||
| 27 | A CAPPELLA |
Unaccompanied product of R Smythe Henderson? (1,8)
|
| ? | ||
| 29 | MIDDLE |
Medium large bust extends race (6)
|
| DD ( large bust ) in MILE ( race ) | ||
| 30 | ANGSTY |
Troubled person who’s engaged in religious profession departs an unclean abode (6)
|
| ?? STY ( unclean abode ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | UNSEW |
Reverse work of seamstress you and I endless check over (5)
|
| reverse of WE ( you and i ) SNUb ( check, endless ) | ||
| 2 | SCOTT BAKULA |
Actor sadly backs out at about fifty (5,6)
|
| [ BACKS OUT AT ]* around L ( fifty ) | ||
| 3 | FLY |
Knowing for a little while cheese is out (3)
|
| brieFLY ( for a little while, without BRIE – cheese ) | ||
| 4 | MINIMUM |
Me and my mother, embracing at least (7)
|
| [ MI ( me ) MUM ( mother ) ] containing IN ( at ) | ||
| 5 | EX SILENTIO |
Now vocal setter? Believable, as you can’t prove otherwise! (2,8)
|
| EX SILENT ( ~ now vocal ) IO ( setter ) | ||
| 6 | ERR |
Ultimately the King and Queen are human, Pope said (3)
|
| thE ( last letter of ) R ( king ) R ( queen ) ; wonder if ‘are’ has a role in the parse as well | ||
| 7 | WELTER |
Surging mass is enduring great heat when disembarking? (6)
|
| cryptic def; sWELTERs ( endures great heat, leaves SS – disembarking ) ; very iffy about this parse | ||
| 8 | TWITCHER |
Peewee having taken wife back on, I go in search of new bird (8)
|
| [ W ( wife ) in TITCH ( peewee ) ] { reverse of RE ( on ) } | ||
| 14 | GARAGE SALES |
Non-electronic kit sets date of beer trading events at home (6,5)
|
| GeAR ( kit, without E – electronic ) AGES ALES ( sets date of beer ) | ||
| 15 | GHOST WORLD |
Growth’s flourishing along with old cult film (5,5)
|
| [ GROWTHS OLD ]* | ||
| 16 | FACE MASK |
Following question about one mobile respirator? (4,4)
|
| [ F ( following ) ASK ( question ) ] around [ ACE ( one ) M ( mobile ) ] | ||
| 19 | RAMPAGE |
Sheep attendant madly rushing about (7)
|
| RAM ( sheep ) PAGE ( attendant ) | ||
| 20 | BANTAM |
Small and combative outlaw you shouldn’t have married (6)
|
| BAN ( outlaw ) TA ( you shouldnt have , in the context of thanks ) M ( married ) | ||
| 24 | HEAVY |
British service chiefs abandoned Scottish beer (5)
|
| tHE nAVY ( british service, without starting letters ) | ||
| 26 | PHI |
Highly acidic character (3)
|
| cryptic def; read as pH 1 ( highly acidic ) | ||
| 28 | PIN |
Stage that you might need to get ready! (3)
|
| double def; ready meaning cash |
I managed to get two answers which I guess proves that it was easier than most IO puzzles.
Far above my pay grade, and I couldn’t even make out which bit of the clue was the definition, never mind parse it.
Despite using a crossword solver I failed to finish this one.
6d is from Alexander Pope.” To err is human , to forgive divine”
Thanks IO and chapeau to Turbolegs.
LIGHT
Looks like a triple def
FEATHER
are frightened by=FEAR
A CAPPELLA
A(ndy) CAPP by R(eg) Smythe
+ELLA (Henderson)
ANGSTY
AN+PIG STY less PI (pious as a noun)
WELER
The blogger’s parse seems fine
(a minor diff: I took ‘is enduring heat’ as SWELTERS)
Disembarking cryptically to mean ‘removing the bark’, I think.
Thanks Io and Turbolegs
Like all of John’s puzzles today, I found this extremely difficult and, although the RH side of this one was slightly friendlier than the left, I did resort to quite a bit of guess and check
27a RSmythe created the cartoon character A(ndy) Capp and apparently Ella Henderson is a English singer -songwriter.
I did wonder whether 13a was a triple definition
Thanks Turbolegs, not one I’d have wanted to blog without having several days to mutter and think, followed by the traditional lie down in a darkened room
Usually I crack about 3 of IO’s clues, then give up. Today I managed one. I gave up very quickly. If it’s tough for 225’s explainers, what chance do we mere mortals have?
WELTER* (typo in my post@3)
SOOTY TERN
A finer point
the part everyone plays in=TUTTI
(the part (of the musical performance) in which everyone plays
their instruments & sings)
My posts on 225 across all three GIFT puzzles will be somewhat the same. In fact, I could easily have copied and pasted to make life even easier. The only difference was the magnitude of failure with the FT trouncing the other two. I barely got started – thank goodness for a couple of three letter words … Congratulations to anyone who cracked this and many thanks to our blogger for explaining the mystery.
Thanks both
Another pointlessly difficult exercise requiring all sorts of desperate measures to fill in the grid and no real satisfaction. Thanks Turbolegs.
Some qns
11a why are the letters reversed? Seems unsignalled
12a obviously you famously can split an atom and the clue doesn’t make sense?
13a don’t see what idle or rest are doing here
30a pi is not really short for religious profession, is it?
3d does fly mean knowing?
4d why should we spell me as mi?
28d why is pin stage?
11a/23a are wltm and gsoh words? Is there supposed to be a classifieds shorthand theme as well as a boxing theme?
I got through most of this. I did not see the theme, could not figure out what to subtract from the parsing for ANGSTY, and had to reveal WLTM (for which maybe some indication that this was not a word might have helped, unless the “…” is supposed to mean something?). I think the “…” in 23A ties in MINI (solution for 22A) into the clue there, presumably indicating an abbreviation.
I thought WELTER was [AS]WELTER (enduring great heat) minus (disembarking) AS (when). [S]WELTER[S] might work, too.
Otherwise, I agree with the comments from KVa and crypticsue above.
James@11 I will give a few opinions .
PIN = stage is in Chambers93 but I do not see the context .
ME=MI musical notes , doh re mi or me .
FLY means arch or knowing – Pretty fly for a white guy .
PI=Pious , someone professing/claiming to be religious .
13 and 11 , I agree .
ATOM – original meaning was indivisable , the clue could have indicated this . Atoms can be easily split into nuclei and electrons , a plasma . We then have nucleons , quarks , dwarfons …
JamesP@11 to add to what Roz (welcome back) has said:
11a – Ebb is the reversal indicator.
13a – See KVa@3 – it’s a triple definition.
28d – Not certain, but it may refer to a stage in the fledging of birds
Thanks all
My thoughts…
11a ‘ebb’ (in the sense of ‘flow back’ is the reversal indicator.
13 a LIGHT/idle banter seems close (in the sense of not serious). The synonym is in Chambers.
rest=LIGHT in the sense of ‘to land’/’to touch down’/’to rest’ (close enough, I guess).
Staging an insect on a pinning stage is the same as pinning that insect. The closest relation
I could find is this.
Been away so long I forgot my manners , Thank you for persevering with a very difficult blog .
Welcome back Roz.
I posted this at 15 but it went into moderation. I’ll try sgain…
JamesP@11 h to add to what Roz (welcome back) has said:
11a – Ebb is the reversal indicator.
13a – See KVa@3 – it’s a triple definition.
28d – Not certain, but I think it refers to a stage in the fledging of birds
Thanks all
All the comments going into moderation should tell the FT that we are all a bit tired of the ridiculous clues and unsolvable linguistic gymnastics of IO. This is not personal, it simply highlights that we (the solvers) do this for fun We are not trying to crack NSA cyphers.
[I think the problem with my comment at 15 was that I tried to edit it too often to fix the typos. I just left them in at 19.]
Thank you Kva and Dunc , your ebb idea works nicely , I am not convinced by the other two but Chambers does give the setter full support .
The deleted/moderation bit seems to be new ? I suppose it stops the numbers getting mixed up .
Coming to this as the third of the JH dailies today I suspected that there might be a thematic connection with the others, which turned out to be the case.
I think it is very impressive that he has taken the same initial theme word for all three and developed them in different directions – with the added link to Boxing Day.
I for one am always happy to pit my wits against JH’s clueing ingenuity, and think that a lot of the negative comments say more about the poster than the setter or puzzle.
Simon @23 I think the problem is that IO’s puzzles are very much harder than the other setters for the FT. I do the ft because I see it as more challenging than the Telegraph and I’m fed up of reading the Times. I generally enjoy the FT crossword as being a good challenge but doable in less than an hour but Io is a massive outlier. I don’t understand why he doesn’t have his own spot for people who like that kind of thing like the Listener puzzle, wherever that is now.
The only thing my moans “say about me” is that I find it pointless and annoying whereas you and others enjoy it, and I’m very happy for you.
Which does tell you that IO’s puzzles divide opinion. I don’t really understand why the FT want to annoy an apparently significant number of us once a fortnight with this kind of thing.
Btw what is the story about Roz for those of use who are not in on the joke?
12ac: Collins 2023 p 126 has “atom n 2 any entity regarded as the indivisible building block of a theory”. The word does not belong to physicists, and Io is entitled to use this definition.
Welcome back Roz
I know I am not “up” on modern culture, but someone who finished 6th on the 9th series of a tv talent show as a part of a clue? Really? And an obscure film and actor? Not the best grid-fill ever for my eclectic range of knowledge. Even as a physicist, I’ll grant “atom” as meaning “something that cannot be subdivided” however, because philosophically that is what it is – you can divide and atom but what you are left with is no longer an atom.. If you divide a block of iron, you just get two bits of iron (until you get down to atoms).
In a number of cases I was really struggling to make the grammar work, having mostly parsed the clue. I agree that “person who’s engaged in religious profession” is a poor match to “pi” which is an adjective usually. “is enduring great heat” implies a present continuous i.e. “sweltering” – it just seems an unnecessary extra step to move to the present simple without any indication. I think clues like this fail on the “once I’ve solved it I should be confident I have it right” test. Ditto I could not match “madly rushing about” to “rampage”. “Rampaging” or “on a rampage”. Perhaps someone can help me with these as often it’s the case that I misunderstand a clue and then, when someone points out what I have missed, I appreciate it properly.
thanks to Turbolegs for Boxing Day duties, and to Io.
Terrible crossword and not suitable for the FT. I congratulate those of you that could do it but why should FT publish crossword which appeals to such a small small small number of their subscribers?
It was a waste of my precious life trying to do the wretched thing.
As I’ve commented previously re Io, I have managed to solve some in the past. Which makes the time wasting even worse; an inconsistent too clever by half setter.
@23 I am dense, what is the same initial theme word?
Yes it was a tough puzzle but pretty fair. I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t find anything untoward. Thank you Turbo and Io.
11ac/23ac: The answers are given in the dictionaries as abbreviations written WLTM and GSOH respectively, which first the enumeration as (4) rather than (1,1,1,1). To me, this is one of the cases where it is better to use an idea twice in the same puzzle so that a solver who has found one of them has a better chance of finding the other. I think the ellipses are also intended to help there. I say that although I solved neither of these clues.
30ac: As KVa @3 has it, AN + PIGSTY less PI clued as “person who’s engaged in religious profession” which fits Chambers 2016 p 1169 pi² “n a pious or sanctimonious person or talk”.
7dn: I have no problem with “is enduring great heat” to mean SWELTERS. I think the “disembarking” may be the reversal of the long-standing use of “aboard” to mean “on a ship” and hence “in SS”. Reversing that would allow “disembarking” to mean “getting off a ship” and hence removing the outer letters SS. KVa’s suggestion in comment 3 about removing the bark is also plausible.
19dn: Chambers 2016 p 1290 has rampage n “turbulently or aggressively excited behaviour or rushing about”.
Correction to 34 re 11ac/23ac: “fits” the enumeration not “first” the enumeration. I ran out of editing time.
W @ 30
Box
Thanks Io & Happy Boxing day. I got through most of this with a lot & guessing and a bit of checking. I actually enjoyed what I could solve because I got a glimpse into a brain that works a little differently than mine — not a bad thing. Favourite clues included FEATHER, BANTAM & PHI. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog, an unenviable task.
[When I saw who the setter was in the major papers my 1st thought was that Roz will be happy. Welcome back!]
Pelham Barton @34: thank you for the definitions and I agree that, having solved GSOH, that made WLTM a more solid solve. I know the Grauniad always uses the full length for initialisms rather than (1,1,1,1), I think in order not to give the game away. Every time it happens it causes complaints on the site and the blog.
From the Chambers definition of “rampage” can you give an example sentence where “madly rushing about” and “rampage” can be swapped? I cannot think of one. Dictionary definitions do not always preserve the grammatical sense when they elucidate a definition I think. And even Chambers says nothing about “pi” being *engaged in a profession*, so that is heavily misleading. Indeed, many clerics are not pi, and many pi people are not clerics so although it is listed as a noun (which is new to me) it’s a poor synonym at best.
James @25, see my Christmas message: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2025/12/19/merry-christmas-and-a-happy-new-year-etc/
Jack@38: I have often seen people mentioning the idea of exchanging words or phrases in a sentence, but I have never accepted it as a necessary condition for the validity of a definition in a crossword clue. I do not see that a definition has to be a synonym of the word defined. Accordingly, I will decline your challenge with regard to 19dn RAMPAGE. With regard to PI in 30ac, I do not think there is an implicit indefinite article, but rather, “profession” is in the sense given in Chambers 2016 p 1240 under the main entry profess: definitions include “the act of professing” and “an avowal”.
PB@40: With that reading of “profession” I now see the correct sense of the “religious profession” clue – I don’t think that had been adequately explained until now, so thank you. I am surprised to learn that “pi” is used as a noun but you learn something new every day.
As I said in my first post, often once one gets right to the bottom of these questionable clues there is more to appreciate.
@8 KvA – I took disembarking to mean leaving the ship (SS) – in SwelterS.
I set a personal record of solving 6 IO clues in this crossword, 4 of them by logic and 2 of them guesses that fit and seemed to make sense.
I have set myself the wholly unreasonable target of completing an IO crossword in 2026.
I echo Simon S @23. He alluded to the ‘Boxing’ Day theme, which at this day-late time I shall point out: If you add “weight” to many of the answers, you have boxing categories. I twigged to this only after looking at the Indy and Guardian. This is a praiseworthy feat for the setter and to the respective editors for coordinating the three.
After a very tough Nimrod (which I did yesterday) I was in two minds as to whether to give this one a go. I’m glad I did as I found this one much more tractable, even if I did end up missing out on the unheard of WLTM. A few unparsed but that comes with the territory for Io.
Do I feel brave enough to give the Enigmatist a go? Maybe…
Thanks to Io and Turbolegs (and to posters above for the helpful comments)
Finished this late last night but this drained me and my iPad to 3%. I found this more enjoyable than the Enigmatist one, without the complication of a blind theme and a vague recollection of the film and actor helped.
Thanks for the correct parsings, I was trying to get sWELTERing to work and for ANGSTY I was trying something over-convoluted with ‘a [nun] clear abode’.
‘Tutti CERN’ seems like the sort of thing that most setters would get an ear-bashing for.
Found this one the most difficult of the three boxing day crosswords, especially since we didn’t get the theme. Still enjoyed the challenge, even if this time Io won!
Commiserations to turbolegs! Many thanks to JH for a few happy hours of tussles.