Puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 24, 2026
Guy is growing on me. My first-in here was 6 (CHINO) and I finished the solve in one moderately long session. My favourites are 1 (CHARTRES), 20 (SATISFACTORY), 24 (IMPOVERISH) and 27 (STOCKADE). Thank you Guy.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CHARTRES |
Setting for Gothic masterpiece which art restorer has framed (8)
|
| Hidden word (has framed) with the definition referring to Chartres Cathedral | ||
| 6 | COMELY |
Pretty bashful when indeterminate Spice Girl enters (6)
|
| MEL (indeterminate Spice Girl) in (enters) COY (bashful).. ‘Indeterminate’ presumably refers to the fact that two of the Spice Girls had MEL in their names. | ||
| 9 | FORM |
On which you might apply to get married (4)
|
| FOR (to get) + M (married) | ||
| 10 | BARKING MAD |
Counter Charles built almost totally cracked (7,3)
|
| BAR (counter) + KING (Charles) + MAD[e] (built almost totally) | ||
| 11 | METAMORPHOSE |
Reform encountered a report of increased opposition (12)
|
| MET (encountered) + A (a) + MORPHOSE (homophone of “more foes”) | ||
| 13 | WARMTH |
Being friendly, match oddly starts with hostility (6)
|
| WAR (hostility) + M[a]T[c]H | ||
| 15 | EMPORIUM |
European rifled our Pimm’s store (8)
|
| E (European) + anagram (rifled) of OUR PIMM | ||
| 17 | UNCLENCH |
Relative finishes off gin and tonic and Scotch to relax (8)
|
| UNCLE (relative) + [gi]N + [toni]C + [Scotc]H | ||
| 19 | SANDHU |
Sikh family name two thirds of military academy (6)
|
| SANDHU[rst] (two thirds of military academy). The name Sandhu is new to me. | ||
| 20 | SATISFACTORY |
French composer’s works should exclude English, OK? (12)
|
| SATI[e]S FACTORY (French composer’s works should exclude ‘E’) | ||
| 24 | IMPOVERISH |
Make poor little monkey in charge of his bananas (10)
|
| IMP (little monkey) + OVER (in charge of) + anagram (bananas) of HIS | ||
| 25 | ICON |
Carbon atom with extra electrons goes round star (4)
|
| C (carbon) in (goes round) ION (atom with extra electrons) (Corrected) | ||
| 26 | HONEST |
House and home upright (6)
|
| HO (host) + NEST (home) | ||
| 27 | STOCKADE |
Pale fizzy drink made with Oxo? (8)
|
| STOCK-ADE (fizzy drink made with Oxo?). ‘Pale’ can mean an enclosing barrier, especially a fence made of pales. And the phrase “beyond the pale” refers to this usage. Oh, and for non-Brits, ‘Oxo’ is a brand name of stock cubes. By the way, in the USA, OXO is a brand of upscale kitchenware. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | HOOTENANNY |
Loud laugh an orphaned girl heard, folk partying (10)
|
| Homophone (heard) of “hoot ‘n Annie” (loud laugh an orphaned girl) with a reference to Little Orphan Annie. | ||
| 3 | RUMBA |
Leaving steak and bread roll unfinished, dance (5)
|
| RUM[p] + BA[p]. Collins says that ‘bap’ is a slang term for a soft flat bread roll. I am accustomed to eating baps and am surprised to learn, as I just have, that ‘bap’ is considered to be slang. | ||
| 4 | REBLOCHON |
Herb blended with cool new French cheese (9)
|
| Anagram (blended) of HERB COOL + N (new) | ||
| 5 | SCRUPLE |
Doubt 1,000 lost in crush (7)
|
| SCRU[m]PLE (1,000 lost in crush). I do not recall coming across ‘scrumple’ before but Collins confirms that it is an English word meaning much the same as ‘crumple’. Collins also notes that it has a slang meaning of to have sex. | ||
| 6 | CHINO |
Material OK to be dropped by large helicopter (5)
|
| CHINO[ok] (OK to be dropped by large helicopter). Chino is a durable cotton twill cloth. Oh, and ’twill’ describes a cloth made in a way that produces parallel sloping lines across it. By the way, ‘Chinook’ generically refers to a warm and dry southwesterly wind that blows down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. And, er, also happens to be a brand name of helicopters made by Boeing. | ||
| 7 | MAGNETRON |
Microwave producer not German, surprisingly (9)
|
| Anagram (surprisingly) of NOT GERMAN | ||
| 8 | LEAD |
Escort which motorist doesn’t use any more? (4)
|
| Double definition with the second referring to leaded petrol | ||
| 12 | RUTHERFORD |
Nuclear physicist that woman’s cross with battles to have sex on top (10)
|
| RUT (battles to have sex) + HER (that woman) + FORD (cross) | ||
| 14 | MILLSTONE |
Quiet complaint from Spooner, crushing rock (9)
|
| Spoonerism of “still moan” (quiet complaint) | ||
| 16 | PISTACHIO |
Light green tailored coat is hip (9)
|
| Anagram (tailored) of COAT IS HIP | ||
| 18 | HIS NIBS |
Lord Muck’s greeting brothers and sisters, hugging any number (3,4)
|
| N (any number) in (hugging) HI (greeting) + SIBS (brothers and sisters) | ||
| 21 | THEFT |
Lift carrying tons, lifting in shop? (5)
|
| T (tons) + HEFT (lift) | ||
| 22 | THINK |
Judge weak king (5)
|
| THIN (weak) + K (king) | ||
| 23 | AMMO |
Mother picked up minute shells, etc (4)
|
| MA (mother) backwards (picked up) + MO (minute) |
BARKING MAD
I think the def is ‘totally mad’.
HOOTENANNY
I took it as ‘HOOT +homophone of ‘an Annie”.
Doesn’t fully work?
Thanks Guy and Pete.
Thanks Guy for the weekend entertainment. Favourites included CHARTRES, UNCLENCH, MAGNETRON, and LEAD. I guessed STOCKADE from the crossers but had no hope of parsing it. I parsed HOOTENANNY the same as KVA @1. Thanks Pete for the blog.
I found this mostly approachable despite the unusual words, but some NHOs in the top half meant it took time to fully crack. All parsed, even though I took a wild guess at LEAD and was happily surprised when I hit the check button.
Liked HONEST, FORM and BARKING MAD
STOCKADE is pales, not pale surely? And I looked up Oxo UK and still got kitchenware initially. It took more research to find the stock.
Thanks Guy and Pete
After a quick start I made rather heavy weather of this but once I’d finished I couldn’t see why – although taking ages to spot the hidden CHARTRES didn’t help.
Favourites included: BARKING MAD, SANDHU, SATISFACTORY, MILLSTONE, CHINO, RUTHERFORD, IMPOVERISH
Thanks Guy and Pete Maclean
STOCKADE
‘to pale’ =’to STOCKADE’ seems to work all right (considering the number mismatch observed by Martyn@3).
Indeed it is, KVa@4. I did not realize pale could be used as a verb. I guess I should have looked it up. Thanks for the info
Another good guy – we need more of them.
Lots of meaningful surfaces and good constructions. Two examples of both qualities are 11a METAMORPHOSE (how has the word “reform” been co-opted by the political right?) and the French (non-English) composer’s works at 20a SATISFACTORY.
Thanks G & P for the grand puzzle and parsing.
Very enjoyable, thanks both
Agree with above comments. By the way, 25a parsing shouldn’t include the word ‘backwards’.
Thanks for the blog , very enjoyable set of neat clues and even a bit of science .
(Ernest) RUTHERFORD perhaps the closest to becoming a NUKE but the constant was discontinued before the element was officially named .
Oops! I saw 25 correctly on solving it but then managed to invent something that was not there while blogging it. Corrected now. Thanks.
Thanks Guy and Pete.
10ac: I think the “totally” can be taken either way. I prefer it as MAD = “built almost totally”, because, to me, Barking is not the extreme of madness. Various stations further out from Central London on the London Underground’s District Line can denote worse madness than just Barking, specifically:
Becontree (two stops on from Barking);
Dagenham East (four stops on);
Upminster (the end of the line, and therefore that really is totally mad).
How many of these are used in real life rather than fiction is another matter.