Puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 31, 2025
This is our first puzzle from Guy here in the Weekend space. Just a few days ago I tackled a weekday crossword by Guy and found it fine. This one however proved to be difficult, the hardest in quite a while for me. And I used look-up tools and help from my solving buddy much more than unusual. My first-in was 17 and I finished with 6. My favourite clues are the very fine 20 (STREAK) and 22 (LET GO).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | POWER CUT |
Disruption in current shift up to crew? (5,3)
|
| Anagram (shift) of UP TO CREW | ||
| 5 | HERMIA |
Recluse tailed a dreamy lover (6)
|
| HERMI[t] (recluse tailed) + A (a) | ||
| 10 | PELAGIC |
Easterly wind in photo of the ocean (7)
|
| GALE (wind) backwards (easterly) in (in) PIC (photo) | ||
| 11 | RISOTTO |
Is too much duck on king’s dish? (7)
|
| R (king) IS (is) + OTT (too much, i.e. over the top) + O (duck) | ||
| 12 | ARENA |
Sphere with a period for rotation (5)
|
| AN ERA (a period) backwards (for rotation) | ||
| 13 | MEANDERED |
Wound Romeo in despicable act (9)
|
| R (Romeo) in (in) MEAN DEED (despicable act) | ||
| 14 | FOURTH ESTATE |
The press in favour of US almost taking lead in Ukraine (6,6)
|
| U[kraine] in FOR (in favour of) + THE STATE(s) (US almost) | ||
| 18 | EASTER MONDAY |
Reshuffle in See mandatory when Pope Francis died (6,6)
|
| Anagram (reshuffle) of SEE MANDATORY | ||
| 21 | FINALISTS |
Last contestants heard better quality of Hungarian pianist (9)
|
| Homophone (heard) of “finer” (better quality) “Liszt’s” (of Hungarian pianist) | ||
| 23 | AGENT |
Infiltrator maybe not evacuated on time (5)
|
| AGE (time) + N[o]T | ||
| 24 | COMPTON |
Sporting Pom getting century after century (7)
|
| C (century) + anagram (sporting) of POM + TON (century) which I think makes it an &Lit. The answer refers great sportsman Denis Compton | ||
| 25 | AGITATE |
Someone annoying had to cause trouble (7)
|
| A GIT (someone annoying) + ATE (had) | ||
| 26 | DUNLOP |
Scottish cheese is greyish- brown — cut bits off? (6)
|
| DUN (greyish-brown) + LOP (cut bits off) | ||
| 27 | TEXTBOOK |
Send a surprising SMS back to shock model (8)
|
| TEXT BOO (send a surprising SMS) + [shoc]K | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | POPLAR |
Tree loved by many becoming hollow? (6)
|
| POP[u]LAR | ||
| 2 | WELLES |
Film director in farmer’s boots showing no ego (6)
|
| WELL[i]ES | ||
| 3 | RIGMAROLE |
Dress old lady with part to play in performance (9)
|
| RIG (dress) + MA (old lady) + ROLE (part to play) | ||
| 4 | UNCOMPROMISING |
Strict sergeant-major married, looking good with uniform on (14)
|
| U (uniform) + NCO (sergeant-major) + M (married) + PROMISING (looking good) | ||
| 6 | EASED |
A little licence, as editor became less severe (5)
|
| Hidden word (a little) | ||
| 7 | MATERIAL |
Significant retreat northwards initiated by ally (8)
|
| MATE (ally) + LAIR (retreat) backwards (northwards) | ||
| 8 | A GOOD BET |
Back to bed possibly the right choice? (1,4,3)
|
| AGO (back) + anagram (possibly) of TO BED | ||
| 9 | BREATHING SPACE |
Respite from book about how fast an object travels (9,5)
|
| B (book) + RE (about) + A THING’S PACE (how fast an object travels) | ||
| 15 | SHAMANIST |
One believes in magic fake satin pants (9)
|
| SHAM (fake) + anagram (pants) of SATIN | ||
| 16 | RED-FACED |
Fred spread diamonds with highest card on top, showing a flush (3-5)
|
| Anagram (spread) of FRED + ACE (highest card) + D (diamonds) | ||
| 17 | AS ONE MAN |
Order some naan with everybody doing likewise (2,3,3)
|
| Anagram (order) of SOME NAAN | ||
| 19 | PEDALO |
Boat old boy capsized after training (6)
|
| PE (training) + O (old) LAD (boy) backwards (capsized) | ||
| 20 | STREAK |
Run out of clothes? (6)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 22 | LET GO |
Fire bricks with studs across the front of them (3,2)
|
| T[hem] in (across) LEGO (bricks with studs) |
Thanks Guy and Pete
5ac: I had HERMIA here, parsed as HERMI(t) + A. Hermia is a character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, hence “dreamy lover”.
8dn: I read the first part as AGO (back) + anagram of TO BED.
10ac: I think this is meant to be GALE reversed in PIC. “Easterly” works as a reversal indicator in an across clue, as an Easterly wind blows from the east.
A good puzzle for the weekend with nuggety clues which required some lateral thinking.
I liked WELLES and MEANDERED very much along with the ‘dreamy lover’ (I agree with Pelham here). 18A was probably my favourite though.
PELAGIC popped up again (two Saturday’s in a row and again, what Pelham said) using a surface very reminiscent of Rosa Klebb’s last offering.
Very enjoyable once again from Guy. Thanks to him and Pete.
I had the same answers and parsing as PB above. Then again I had no idea how to parse LET GO, so thank you for the steer.
It was only 2 days ago, but I do not remember thinking it either easy or difficult. I quite enjoyed it, as indicated by my long list of favourites: RED FACED, STREAK, MATERIAL, RIGMAROLE, MEANDERED, and SHAMANIST.
Thanks Guy and Pete
Thanks Guy for an excellent crossword. I thought EASTER MONDAY was remarkable for both its anagram and surface. Other favourites included FOURTH ESTATE, WELLES, RIGMAROLE, and AGITATE. Thanks Pete for the blog.
In the blog, 11 is missing the R for ‘king’s’, 14 should read ‘u’ in ‘for’ (not ‘pro’) and 26 has a ‘typo’: ‘dum’ instead of ‘dun’ – probably a case of sausage fingers!
I didn’t know but guessed Compton was a sportsman so thanks for the explanation, Pete.
I agree with the comments on parsing above. I found this challenging.
Yes took me some time to finish this and didn’t parse a couple.
Liked: HERMIA, MEANDERED, RIGMAROLE, MATERIAL, PEDALO
Thanks Guy and Pete
(In 15d SHAM is for “fake”)
Didn’t know the Scottish cheese but the recipe was clear, as was the rest of this good puzzle, thanks Guy and Pete.
[Compton was quite the all-round star, playing for Arsenal, England, and England! I remember his name on the wireless, along with our blokes — Benaud, Harvey, Lindwall, Miller et al — must have been the ’55-’56 Ashes tour]
8d back = ago then anagram of to bed gives a good bet I think
A testing puzzle, with some original wordplays, and crafty misdirections.
” Wound”, for MEANDERED in 13(ac), dummied me for one; “old boy” in 19(d), too.
I wouldn’t be a blogger, for all the tea in Tesco. After “wellies” featured in 2(d), I convinced myself that DUNLOP, 26(ac), was the Scottish businessman (“big cheese”). I’ve not heard of the dairy product.
27(ac) is one of the novel plays, which Guy seems so good at: “surprising SMS” = “TEXT BOO”. Love it.
The “dreamy lover”, HERMIA”, in 5(ac), is a clever play on words; (Pete….I had to bung it in, and looked it up later ).
Bad luck for Guy, with 10(ac), PELAGIC. Surely a bizarre coincidence, and double bad luck that Rosa Klebb’s very similar version was only a few days ago.
Great stuff from Guy and Mr Maclean.
A bit chewy in places but all gettable. We’re with PB and others on 5ac; thanks too to them for the parsing of 8dn which we couldn’t see. Not sure how many of the supposed ‘younger solvers’ would know of COMPTON.
We liked the ingenious and topical EASTER MONDAY.
Thanks, Guy and Pete.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, having struggled with a Guy recently. Definitely chewy but also doable and very fair.
Weird to see Pelagic cropping up again, so soon. At least this time, I didn’t make this mistake of entering Pacific on at the first go round.
I puzzled for the parsing of eight down until the ah-ha moment of Ago = Back.
Thanks for the blog
Streak was my LOI.
A couple more addendums to the blog (several already pointed out, agreeing here with Pelham Barton and Diane)
9D: there’s a bit of subtlety here; it’s A THING’S PACE for “how fast an object travels”, which you need for the S of Space
15D: magic is part of the definition, the “fake” is giving you SHAM, and the anagrind is PANTS
Our LOI “textbook”, which we regarded as one of half a dozen excellent clues
Thanks for 9D, Kit.
Wow, thank you for so many corrections. 11 and 15 were typos while the rest were genuine misparsings.
Late to the game, catching up on the weekend’s puzzles. Thank you Guy and Pete – just wanted to add for the sake of completeness, in 21ac I think “of Hungarian pianist” gives “Liszt’s” which is a homophone of “lists” and hence fills in the missing ‘s’ in the answer.