Puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 4, 2026
It’s nice to see Mudd again on this holiday weekend. My favourites here are 1d (LIPSTICK), 18 (VERBOTEN), 29 (EVEREST) and 27 (DEMO). FISH KETTLE was a new term to me.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LIB-DEM |
Professional distanced from problem I’d created for politician (3-3)
|
| Anagram (created) of [pro]BLEM ID | ||
| 4 | HOT WATER |
A pickle in steamer? (3,5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | PORCINE |
Swinish monster in tree (7)
|
| ORC (monster) in (in) PINE (tree) | ||
| 11 | ENNOBLE |
None be quaking, including Lancelot initially – knight? (7)
|
| L[ancelot] in (quaking) of NONE BE | ||
| 12 | TOME |
Book labelled as if mine? (4)
|
| “To Me” (labelled as if mine) | ||
| 13 | FISH KETTLE |
Funnel on angle for cooking pot (4,6)
|
| FISH (angle) + KETTLE (funnel, as in crowd control) | ||
| 15 | CATTLE |
Cows lassoed by belt, tackled from behind (6)
|
| Reverse (from behind) hidden word (lassoed by) | ||
| 16 | HACKSAW |
Tool journo recognised (7)
|
| HACK (jorno) + SAW (recognized) | ||
| 20 | FRITTER |
Healthier eating recommended for a start – that food’s fried! (7)
|
| R[ecommended) in (eating) FITTER (healthier) | ||
| 21 | SNAPPY |
Quick forty winks grabbed by mole (6)
|
| NAP (forty winks) in (grabbed by) SPY (mole) | ||
| 24 | RUBBER BAND |
One causing friction excluded, reportedly – might this hold things together? (6,4)
|
| RUBBER (one causing friction) + homophone (reportedly) of “banned” (excluded) | ||
| 26 | BEAR |
Hairy thing completely shaved, we hear? (4)
|
| Homophone (we hear) of “bare” (completely shaved) | ||
| 28 | CATMINT |
Plant a lot of money on possible burglar? (7)
|
| CAT (possible burglar) + MINT (a lot of money) | ||
| 29 | EVEREST |
Mountaineering challenge: always check before heading off (7)
|
| EVER (always) + [t]EST (check before heading off) | ||
| 30 | SCRAG END |
Head of course in ganders cooked, neck providing little meat (5,3)
|
| C[ourse] in (in) anagram (cooked) of GANDERS | ||
| 31 | POTTED |
Brief pocketed (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LIPSTICK |
Face decorator with impudence and criticism (8)
|
| LIP (impudence) + STICK (criticism) | ||
| 2 | BAROMETER |
Standard ‘ouse in exchange (9)
|
| [h]OME (‘ouse) in (in) BARTER (exchange) | ||
| 3 | EXIT |
Withdrawal by team entering extra time (4)
|
| XI (team) in (entering) ET (extra time) | ||
| 5 | OVERHEAR |
Audible invitation to come close – for catch (8)
|
| Homophone (audible) of “over here” (to come close) | ||
| 6 | WUNDERKIND |
Ace lower than king in twist (10)
|
| UNDER (lower than) + K (kind) in (in) WIND (twist) | ||
| 7 | TIBET |
Himalayan land surely under threat, ultimately (5)
|
| [threa]T + I BET (surely) | ||
| 8 | REEFER |
Jacket on, pants free (6)
|
| RE (on) + anagram (pants) of FREE | ||
| 9 | DEVIL |
Satan drew breath from below? (5)
|
| LIVED (drew breath) backwards (from below) | ||
| 14 | FLUTTERING |
Batting pitch, total acquired (10)
|
| UTTER (total) in (acquired) FLING (pitch) | ||
| 17 | AT PRESENT |
Parent set off today (2,7)
|
| Anagram (off) of PARENT SET | ||
| 18 | VERBOTEN |
Forbidden, something to do with mysterious note (8)
|
| VERB (something to do) + anagram (mysterious) of NOTE | ||
| 19 | HYDRATED |
Dam unfinished and the dry ground saturated (8)
|
| Anagram (ground) of DA[m] THE DRY | ||
| 22 | CROCUS |
Leader of union seen in casual shoes – a bloomer (6)
|
| U[nion] in (seen in) CROCS (casual shoes) | ||
| 23 | UNWED |
Single letters in pronoun we described (5)
|
| Hidden word (letters in) | ||
| 25 | BITER |
Nipper with snack ending on floor (5)
|
| BITE (snack) + [floo]R | ||
| 27 | DEMO |
March second after first and second of December (4)
|
| DE[cember] + MO (second) |
That was a very entertaining puzzle, and I agree that it is nice to see Mudd in the weekend slot again.
I ticked DEMO, TIBET, SNAPPY, and PORCINE, while I thought POTTED, HOT WATER and TOME were all clever
I found the SW corner the most challenging. SCRAG END is not something I have had to deal with, perhaps other than in Dickens. CATMINT was also new to me, and FLUTTERING took a long time to solve then longer to parse. Elsewhere, I have come across FISH KETTLE but probably only in ancient novels
Thanks Mudd and Pete
PS I would love to have also done the jumbo crossword in the paper, but I just did not have the time this weekend
Thanks for the blog , my kind friend printed this for me , it was not in the paper . I agree with Martyn@1 for his first two paragraphs .
I have a FISH KETTLE but only use it for salmon or sea trout . We have a saying – a nice kettle of fish – which means chaos , I do not understand this because they are the simplest thing to use .
I’ve cooked SCRAG END in Lancashire hotpot, in school cookery lessons, not from choice; I’m sure it was one of the recipes my mother sniffed at and remade before the family ate it, but she had a recipe of casseroled SCRAG END served with capers*.
And I’ve cleaned a copper FISH KETTLE, but I don’t think we used it to cook the whole poached salmon I’ve handled as the centrepiece for various dos, I don’t think it was big enough.
Fun puzzle from Mudd, who is definitely gentler as Mudd.
* The meat dishes I was fed as a child put me off eating meat.
I hate that the usual crossword at Holiday Weekend is not in the printed edition, which is all that I get. I miss a good MUDD
Nobody really knows why “a pretty kettle of fish” is a mess. One theory is that old Scottish picnics used to throw odds and ends of fish in a kettle. Another is that a kitel is a kind of fish weir which would catch all sorts and be a bad thing to bump into in a boat.
Thanks Peter@6 , very interesting , I think for most of these old phrases there is no conclusive proof of their origin .
Was there no thread for the jumbo Crossword 18336?
My understanding of the origin of the phrase “kettle of fish” is that in large kitchens it was the practice to toss the extraneous fish-heads into a kettle, to make the base for a non-cream based fish chowder. (Add rum and a dash of sherry peppers and you have a Bermuda specialty.)
To Will@8, I can’t see a blog for that Easter Saturday jumbo 18,336. The answers were in the following Saturday’s print edition. But I was hoping to find an explanation of the special instructions that appeared just above the clues.