Puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 5, 2025
I praise Julius’ consistency and brilliance. My first-in was the easy but clever 22 (ACTED) and I solved 6 (EMPEROR PENGUINS) early on which gave me a good start. My favourite clue is 17 (OBTAINED) and I also especially like 1d (FLAMBE), 9 (SCOTCH) and 12 (BLACK BELT).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FORT KNOX |
Opposed hits on the radio where there’s so much heavy metal (4,4)
|
| Homophone (on the radio) of “fought knocks” (opposed hits) | ||
| 5 | LEASED |
Let papa off , being in good humour (6)
|
| [p]LEASED (papa off being in good humour)) | ||
| 10 | ADIEU |
I’m leaving daughter that is draped with gold (5)
|
| D (daughter) + IE (that is) together in (draped with) AU (gold) | ||
| 11 | DECEPTION |
Party switching leader from Republican to Democrat — such duplicity! (9)
|
| RECEPTION (party) with the ‘R’ (Republican) replaced by ‘D’ (Democrat) | ||
| 12 | BLACK BELT |
A highly-trained individual, Boycott gambled after securing 50 (5,4)
|
| BLACK (boycott) + L (50) in (securing) BET (gambled). It seems to me that ‘black’ and ‘boycott’ have a closeness in meaning but I do not quite see how one can clue the other. Maybe something like ‘blacklist’. Incidentally, I did dig up the information that Geoff Boycott kept a black book which he used to record bowlers’ tendencies. | ||
| 13 | REALM |
Country to increase military spending after changing sides (5)
|
| REARM (to increase military spending) with the second ‘R’ changed to ‘L’ (after changing sides) | ||
| 14 | FINEST |
Most splendid home for top level motor racing? (6)
|
| FI (top level motor racing) NEST (home) | ||
| 15 | HARICOT |
Horse-drawn vehicle delaying Charlie Bean (7)
|
| CHARIOT (horse-drawn vehicle) with the ‘C’ (Charlie) moved four places (delaying) | ||
| 18 | BANDAGE |
Musicians — a long time dressing (7)
|
| BAND (musicians) + AGE (a long time) | ||
| 20 | THEORY |
What about probing Conservative ideology? (6)
|
| EH (what) backwards (about) in (probing) TORY (Conservative) | ||
| 22 | ACTED |
Played the leads in Alien, Crash, The Exorcist and Dune (5)
|
| A[lien] C[rash] T[he] E[xorcist] D[une] | ||
| 24 | BABY GRAND |
Instrument relaying positive news from Leeds maternity unit? (4,5)
|
| Double definition….but I do not understand the Leeds part. I presume it has something to do with Yorkshire pronunciation or word-usage. | ||
| 25 | NARCISSUS |
Being self-obsessed, Russians actively embracing cold (9)
|
| C (cold) in (embracing) anagram (actively) of RUSSIANS | ||
| 26 | INLET |
Bay home no longer vacant (5)
|
| IN (home) + LET (no longer vacant) | ||
| 27 | DINGHY |
Husband on board shabby inflatable boat (6)
|
| H (husband) in (on board) DINGY (shabby) | ||
| 28 | CONSIDER |
Think seriously about De Niro’s cast (8)
|
| C (about, i.e. circa) + anagram (cast) of DE NIROS | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FLAMBE |
Fine meat course finally served with a brandy glaze (6)
|
| F (fine) + LAMB (meat) + [cours]E. And possibly an &Lit? | ||
| 2 | RUINATION |
Rugby country impacted by current bankruptcy (9)
|
| I (current) in RU (rugby) + NATION (country) | ||
| 3 | KNUCKLE SANDWICH |
Punch in the mouth? We click ‘UK’ and ‘NHS’ to get treatment (7,8)
|
| Anagram (to get treatment) of WE CLICK UK AND NHS | ||
| 4 | ODDMENT |
Eccentric chaps start to tackle leftover (7)
|
| ODD (eccentric) + MEN (chaps) + T[ackle] | ||
| 6 | EMPEROR PENGUINS |
Quietly feeding preening emus or exotic birds (7,8)
|
| P (quietly) in (feeding) anagram (exotic) of PREENING EMUS OR | ||
| 7 | SHIVA |
Hindu deity cherished by Rishi Valmiki (5)
|
| Hidden word (cherished by) | ||
| 8 | DYNAMITE |
Explosive daytime broadcast around noon (8)
|
| N (noon) in anagram (broadcast) of DAYTIME | ||
| 9 | SCOTCH |
Crush the spirit? (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | CURTAILED |
Dog behaved like a dog, having end away (9)
|
| CUR (dog) + TAILED (behaved like a dog) | ||
| 17 | OBTAINED |
Got 1D (a bit contrived, boring) (8)
|
| Anagram (contrived) of A BIT in (boring) ONE D (1D) | ||
| 19 | EMBOSS |
Engineer a raise for Julius after upsetting the gaffer (6)
|
| ME (Julius) backwards (after upsetting) + BOSS (the gaffer) | ||
| 20 | TABASCO |
In the US, Bill’s firm imports adult hot stuff (7)
|
| A (adult) in (imports) TABS (in the US, bills) + CO (firm) | ||
| 21 | EDITOR |
My boss redid story using trimmed content (6)
|
| [r]EDI[d] [s]TOR[y] | ||
| 23 | TURIN |
Go around Italy’s principal city (5)
|
| I (Italy’s principle) in (around) TURN (go) |
I came to see the parsing of EMBOSS, having not realised the setter’s pseudonym was Julius. I should no look at crosswords late at night!
I always cringe at homophones (I am French.) Otherwise a nice puzzle.
Tanks Julius and Pete.
I echo your praise of Julius’s puzzles. I clearly remember one of the regular contributors a few months ago pointing to his love of the language, something I think shines through again in this puzzle.
LHS came out easily, RHS needed a few down answers to get going. So saying, OBTAINED was my LOI. i ticked BANDAGE, TURIN, and thought INLET neat. I loved NARCISSUS and KNUCKLE SANDWICH.
I had similar thoughts as Pete about BLACK BELT and GRAND PIANO. I also wondered about the purpose of “inflatable” in DINGHY (most DINGHies I know are solid).
All in all a fun puzzle from the master and a great blog
Thanks Julius and Pete
Frogman@1: I am amazed and humbled when someone who is not a native speaker tackles a cryptic crossword in English. You have my admiration.
Thanks Julius and Pete
12ac: Collins 2023 p 212 has black vb 25 (tr) Brit, Austral and NZ (of trade unionists) to organize a boycott of (specified goods, jobs, work, etc), esp in support of industrial action elsewhere.
Pefect entertainment this weekend from Julius with typically smooth (8d, 21d) and witty (16d) surfaces. This setter is justly noted for his cunningly constructed anagrams: 6d was fine but KNUCKLE SANDWICH was a pearler!
I also ticked ‘fought knocks’, ‘engineer a raise’, HARICOT, DINGHY, FLAMBÉ and ODDMENT.
Thanks Julius and Pete.
Further to Pete’s comment, while ACTED was readily spotted, I did like that particular grouping of blockbuster films in the wordplay.
Ditto Diane@6
Thanks Julius for a fine crossword with many great clues including DECEPTION, REALM, INLET, DINGHY, DYNAMITE, SCOTCH, TABASCO, and TURIN. My one stumble was FORT KNOX partly because ‘fort’ and ‘fought’ do not sound alike to me in the least. Thanks Pete for the blog.
As a Bank of England economist I was very excited by 15A since Sir Charles (Charlie) Bean is a former Chief Economist. A deliberate very FT clue, I’m hoping.
Many thanks Julius and all the other commentators.
Another great crossword from Julius, with many witty clues, with the usual fine surfaces. I already had a tick for HARICOT for the construction but Jonathan’s note at 10 raises it a couple of notches. I’m always impressed by the use of real people’s names in clues and Julius is particularly good at it (cf Boycott in 12ac.)
Other ticks were for NARCISSUS, FLAMBE, CURTAILED, TABASCO and BABY GRAND, where I think the reference to Leeds maternity unit is to the use of ‘grand’, as in Wallace and Gromit’s ‘A grand day out’.
Many thanks, as ever, to Julius and to Pete.
Thanks for the blog, dear Pete, and thanks to those who have left a comment.
@TonySantucci…hi Tony, to me, fort and fought sound the same so I naturally find it interesting that to you it doesn’t work. I remember some compiler posting a few years ago that they often chucked in a dodgy homophone since it was a surefire way of generating a few comments!
@Jonathan…in my former life I used to work in financial markets and one of the highlights was an occasional lunch in the dining rooms within the hallowed walls of Threadneedle St so yes, that was no coincidence.
@Pete…the Leeds reference in the clue for BABY GRAND was intended to reflect local usage a bit. I’m a Yorkshireman myself (Sheffield) and we do tend to say “grand” or “champion” to describe something that’s excellent… eg Wallace & Gromit in A Grand Day Out.
Best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
Thank you to Julius and Pete Maclean for an enjoyable crossword.
I’ll flag the spam @8
Thanks for dropping in, Julius – we crossed, I think!
Re fort/fought: a number of years ago, after prolonged discussion on the Guardian thread, Shed came up with ‘Tenor in drunken choir fought for fort? Not in this accent! (6)’. The discussion still goes on …
Good morning Eileen, yes it looks like we crossed! Love that clue you posted x
Like Jonathan, I was please to see Charlie Bean – I was at Cambridge with him. He started off doing Maths but changed to Economics in his second year.
Lovely puzzle as always. I found the top half went in quite quickly but I took a lot longer in the bottom half.
Favourites: FLAMBE, HARICOT, ODDMENT, CURTAILED
(and fought and fort do not sound the same to me either – but I have got used to such “homophones”)
Thanks Julius and Pete
What Eileen said @10
Thanks to her, Julius and Pete
That were a grand crossword. Eileen@13 that’s brilliant.
I loved this, coming up short only on 17D for which I now kick myself.
Another great one from Julius. I too was especially impressed by the smooth ACTED and slightly bemused by GRAND.Thank you J & P.
Thanks Julius @11 for addressing the fort/fought comment I made & to Eileen @13 for providing such a brilliant clue addressing the ‘issue’. Shanne @12: What does ‘spam’ @8 mean?
Tony@21: In case Shanne does not get back, there was a previous comment 8 which has now been deleted and accordingly your comment starting “Thanks Julius for a fine crossword” has been renumbered from 9 to 8.
Thanks Pelham Barton @22 for explaining.
Sorry, Tony @21 – I would have got back and said, but I’m only just stopping now. The comment at 8 was spam, which is why it was deleted. I flagged it in Site Feedback to kenmac to get it removed.
Thanks Shanne. I thought for a second that homophone criticism might be seen as ‘spam’ because it’s so frequent & often considered ‘junk’.