Puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 21, 2026
I breezed through most of this puzzle but needed to do some digging to solve 1 (THE YEAR DOT). My favourite clues are 7d (SHIPOWNER) for its cryptic definition, 13 (BRIGHTON) for its smooth surface, 14 (GORE VIDAL), 22 (ABOVE ALL) and 25 (BALDERDASH) for its two trees. My thanks to BC for some help and to Julius for another grand puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | THE YEAR DOT |
Mone’s expensive purchase from Spooner back in the day? (3,4,3)
|
| Spoonerism of “dear yacht” referring to Baroness Michelle Mone’s superyacht. “The year dot” is a British informal idiom used to refer to a very long time ago. | ||
| 7 | SIDE |
Bank regularly swindled (4)
|
| S[w]I[n]D[l]E[d] | ||
| 9 | TUBA |
Instrument neighbour returned (4)
|
| ABUT (neighbour) backwards (returned) | ||
| 10 | FEVER PITCH |
Part of Hornby set that generates enormous excitement? (5,5)
|
| Double definition with the first referring to one of Nick Hornby’s books. | ||
| 11 | PISTON |
Component in engine pump is to need clamping (6)
|
| Hidden word (clamping) | ||
| 12 | DIAMONDS |
Ice suit (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | BRIGHTON |
Book trendy seaside resort (8)
|
| B (book) + RIGHT ON (trendy) | ||
| 15 | NARK |
Police informer drug cop reported (4)
|
| Homophone (reported) of “narc” (drug cop) | ||
| 17 | OVER |
Finished port after saying goodbye to daughter (4)
|
| .[d]OVER (port after saying goodbye to daughter) | ||
| 19 | GIMCRACK |
Dodge Russian fighter from the east, first-rate (8)
|
| MIG (Russian fighter) backwards (from the east) + CRACK (first-rate) | ||
| 22 | ABOVE ALL |
First and foremost a lovable rogue (5,3)
|
| Anagram (rogue) of A LOVABLE | ||
| 23 | UNCAGE |
Upper-class actor Nicolas showcasing new release (6)
|
| N (new) in (showcasing) U (upper-class) + CAGE (actor Nicolas) | ||
| 25 | BALDERDASH |
British tree and Dutch tree rot (10)
|
| B (British) + ALDER (tree) + D (Dutch) + ASH (tree) | ||
| 26 | BLUE |
Rejected European Union; pound down (4)
|
| EU (European Union) + LB (pound) all backwards (rejected) | ||
| 27 | FOWL |
Bird starts to fly over winter landscape (4)
|
| F[ly] O[ver] W[inter] L[andscape] | ||
| 28 | DEHYDRATED |
Daddy there, desperately in need of a drink (10)
|
| Anagram (desperately) of DADDY THERE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | HAULIER |
Husband running EU rail transport business (7)
|
| H (husband) + anagram (running) of EU RAIL | ||
| 3 | YEAST |
The old way to introduce a fungus (5)
|
| A (a) in (to introduce) YE (the old) + ST (way, i.e. street) | ||
| 4 | AFFINITY |
Frisky, 50, in a married relationship (8)
|
| Anagram (frisky) of FIFTY (50) IN A | ||
| 5 | DAVID AND GOLIATH |
Oh… a lad v giant did become quite a story! (5,3,7)
|
| Anagram (become) of OH A LAD V GIANT DID | ||
| 6 | TARMAC |
The black stuff beginning to tempt real ale fans to the north (6)
|
| T[empt] + CAMRA (real ale fans) backwards (to the north) | ||
| 7 | SHIPOWNER |
SS boss, wartime captive sporting black eye (9)
|
| POW (wartime captive) in (sporting) SHINER (black eye) | ||
| 8 | DECIDER |
Iced over before the German crunch match? (7)
|
| ICED (iced) backwards (over) + DER (the German) | ||
| 14 | GORE VIDAL |
Famous American Good Old Republican boy I have upset (4,5)
|
| G (good) + O (old) + R (republican) + LAD (boy) IVE (I have) backwards (upset, in the sense of turned over). Gore was actually not a Republican, not that this matters for the clue. | ||
| 16 | AMBUSHED |
In the morning, knackered, attacked by surprise (8)
|
| AM (in the morning) + BUSHED (knackered) | ||
| 18 | VIBRATO |
Very independent spoiled child, zero musical skill (7)
|
| V (very) + I (independent) + BRAT (spoiled child) + O (zero) | ||
| 20 | CAGOULE |
Century since Euler discovered hooded garment (7)
|
| C (century) + AGO (since) + [e]ULE[r] | ||
| 21 | SACRED |
Holy See initially having lots of land (6)
|
| S[ee] + ACRED (having lots of land) | ||
| 24 | COBRA |
Chaotic OBR arranges to host emergency meeting (5)
|
| Hidden word (to host). OBR stands for Office for Budget Responsibility. |
Another wonderful entertainment from Julius.
THE YEAR DOT, FEVER PITCH, ABOVE ALL, BALDERDASH (for the same readon as Pete), DEHYDRATED, AFFINITY, SHIPOWNER, GORE VIDAL and CAGOULE (not heard that in years) all earned ticks.
Did wonder if the definition of GIMCRACK (19a) was a typo where ‘dodgy’ was required?
Thanks to Julius and Pete.
Thanks Julius and Pete
19ac: gimcrack “n a dodge, trick” appears explicitly in Chambers 2016 p 644.
As a fan of Julius, I am always delighted to see his name
I ticked TUBA, VIBRATO, AFFINITY and BALDERDASH. I thought DAVID AND GOLIATH nothing short of triumphant, and DEHYDRATED pretty good too
I am afraid I was also disappointed that parts of this puzzle were so parochial – words and abbreviations only someone living in or from UK would know. This meant I struggled in places, particularly the top half. Perhaps I should be disappointed in myself instead.
Thanks Julius and Pete
Thanks Pelham @2 – I had only seen it as an adjective.
Thanks Julius for the weekend entertainment. Most of this slipped in quite easily but I could only guess THE YEAR DOT (unfamiliar expression with equally unfamiliar wordplay) and FEVER PITCH (unfamiliar with Hornby). Otherwise it was a quick solve with my favourites being TUBA, BALDERDASH, BLUE, DAVID AND GOLIATH (simply brilliant), SHIPOWNER (liked the SS diversion), DECIDER, and VIBRATO. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Nho the yacht lady, and yes Hornby says toy trains, but both defs were definitive enough and both the year dot and fever pitch are common enough. And the rest was pretty cruisy and fun too, ta Julius and Pete.
Always good to see a puzzle from Julius. I think this was on the easier side (particularly the top half) which is fine and I really enjoyed it.
Liked: FEVER PITCH, BALDERDASH, GORE VIDAL, THE YEAR DOT (though I would prefer not to be reminded of her)
Didn’t parse OVER
Thanks Julius and Pete Maclean
If we have to have spoonerisms is crosswords (and why?) then please can they at least be good ones. I dare say some people pronounce “year” to rhyme with “dear” but I certainly don’t.
I am one of those for whom dear and year rhyme and find it hard to imagine how they wouldn’t. At first, the only Spoonerism I could come up with for 1ac was Podgy DPP, but it didn’t fit. Lovely puzzle as always.
Thanks Julius and Pete
A fine puzzle
I think this site should have a sub-header in bold on every page: “For every clue where the solution is a pun there will be at least one solver who will say that it doesn’t work in their idiolect”.
it probably won’t stop it happening, but one can hope…
Lots of fun, I couldn’t get Fever Pitch being fixated on a Hornby Set being a train set – D’oh! Similar problems with Affinity – I was fixated on fifty meaning L – ah well. D minus, I must do better
Still lots to enjoy, thanks to Julius and Pete.
Autistic Trier @11
Yes I tried to fit an answer with train as one of the words for 10ac but then the penny dropped.
As for AFFINITY I think Roz might give that one a hard Paddington stare.
Took a while to retro-parse THE YEAR DOT, and my online dictionaries were not convincing about GIMCRACK. And sticking ‘the’ in front of a Spoonerism seems rather naughty. And although I’m a Hornby fan, I had to look up his bibliography to get FEVER PITCH.
On the other hand, BRIGHTON, TUBA, AFFINITY (once you have the ‘aha!’ moment and let go of Roman numbering), SHIPOWNER, BALDERDASH, OVER … lots of clever cluing and lovely surfaces.
Thank you Julius and thanks Pete for the blog.
Late to the show but can’t resist commenting.
Re 1a THE YEAR DOT, we use this phrase in Canada, so it is not just a Britishism. And I second SimonS@10’s suggestion – will some of us ever learn to distinguish between homophones and puns? (I liked this one.)
I too couldn’t get past the Hornby train set (devious misdirection) at 10a FEVER PITCH, but arrived at the unparsed correct answer from the definition and crossers.
My favourites were 25a BALDERDASH, for the diseased trees, and 7d SHIPOWNER for the wartime SS misdirection. Great surfaces, both.
Thanks J & P for the jollity and parsing help.
Also late to this party, but found this a most enjoyable puzzle. Needed help parsing 20d which had me distracted by mathematical possibilities that were really not the point.
I like Julius more and more; perhaps because I have a better likelihood of solving his puzzles, as I did with this. I found the bottom half easier than the top, with AFFINITY the last in once I stopped treating 50 as “L”. Favourites: THE YEAR DOT, DIAMONDS and SHIPOWNER.
I can’t think of any pronunciation where “year” and “dear” do not rhyme.
25a – Isn’t D the letter for Germany (Deutschland)?
4d – affinity = married relationship?? Mmmm.
D is the right letter for Germany in many contexts but Collins confirms that G is also a valid abbreviation.
I understand your “Mmmm”.