Puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 24, 2025
This struck me as a very Muddish crossword. My first-in was 4 (THAT SAID) and I quickly filled the top-right quadrant. The top-left was more challenging. My favourites are 2 (REHEARSAL) and 26 (PAWN).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BIRDIE |
Eagle perhaps? Not quite (6)
|
| Cryptic definition with golf involved | ||
| 4 | THAT SAID |
Even so, this a tad cryptic? (4,4)
|
| Anagram (cryptic) of THIS A TAD | ||
| 9 | AT HOME |
In a book, husband parts (2,4)
|
| A (a) + H (husband) in (in) TOME (book) | ||
| 10 | FILMGOER |
Picture lover from Italian capital with leg wound (8)
|
| Anagram (wound) of FROM I[talian] LEG | ||
| 12 | START OUT |
Craft beer’s drunk – get away! (5,3)
|
| ART (craft) in (drunk) STOUT (beer) | ||
| 13 | BRUNEI |
Character entering Burundi after vacation, small nation (6)
|
| RUNE (character) in (entering) B[urund]I | ||
| 15 | DISH |
Food served, a beauty (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | STRIPTEASE |
A priest set about erotic performance (10)
|
| Anagram (about) of A PRIEST SET | ||
| 19 | COLD TURKEY |
Arctic country’s complete withdrawal (4,6)
|
| COLD (Arctic) + TURKEY (country) | ||
| 20 | STAG |
Male getting leg shortened (4)
|
| STAG[e] (leg shortened) | ||
| 23 | ILL SAY |
Passageway suggested? Absolutely! (3,3)
|
| Homophone (suggested) of “aisle” (passageway) | ||
| 25 | PARALLEL |
Friend keeping slowing, vehicle ultimately running alongside (8)
|
| RALL (slowing) + [vehicl]E together in (keeping) PAL (friend). ‘Rall’ is an abbreviation for rallentando which is an indication to slow done in music. | ||
| 27 | KILOGRAM |
Unit of mass I record in retro symbol (8)
|
| I (I) + LOG (record) in MARK (symbol) backwards (retro) | ||
| 28 | PARENT |
Mother for example has father in pieces (6)
|
| PA (father) + RENT (in pieces) | ||
| 29 | NICOTINE |
Drug: figure inhaling it catching cold, half gone (8)
|
| CO[ld] in (catching) IT (it) in (inhaling) NINE (figure) | ||
| 30 | LIBYAN |
Leaders in Luxembourg and Italy near an African (6)
|
| L[uxembourg] I[taly] + BY (near) + AN (an) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BRAISED |
Cooked beef’s first up (7)
|
| B[eef] + RAISED (up) | ||
| 2 | REHEARSAL |
Alan Shearer’s forsaken an evil practice (9)
|
| Anagram (evil) of AL[an] SHEARER | ||
| 3 | INMATE |
Patient batting partner (6)
|
| IN (batting) + MATE (partner) | ||
| 5 | HEIR |
Person who succeeds welcomed by the Irish (4)
|
| Hidden word | ||
| 6 | TEMERITY |
Cheek still turned, worth poking that (8)
|
| MERIT (worth) in (poking that) YET (still) backwards (turned) | ||
| 7 | ADORN |
Navy at bottom of a party dress (5)
|
| A (a) + DO (party) + RN (navy) | ||
| 8 | DORMICE |
What might make bedroom cold for rodents? (7)
|
| DORM (bedroom) + ICE (cold) | ||
| 11 | BUSTARD |
Source of energy in sprout for bird (7)
|
| STAR (source of energy) in (in) BUD (sprout) | ||
| 14 | SIDECAR |
Low vehicle I’d entered in competitions, reversing up (7)
|
| ID (I’d) in (entered in) RACES (competitions) backwards (reversing up) | ||
| 17 | ARTILLERY |
Farmer in contrary gardener removing hat for military unit (9)
|
| TILLER (farmer) in (in) [m]ARY (contrary gardener removing hat). I must thank BC for explaining the last bit which is a reference to the nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?” | ||
| 18 | STRAIGHT |
Neat hand (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | CHICKEN |
Yellow meat (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | GELATIN |
Setter spinning yarn in trap (7)
|
| TALE (yarn) backwards (spinning) in (in) GIN (trap) | ||
| 22 | MALAWI |
African rule written in brief letters (6)
|
| LAW (rule) in (written in) MAI[l] (brief letters) | ||
| 24 | LILAC |
Flower: name coming up touring India (5)
|
| I (India) in (touring) CALL (name) backwards (coming up) | ||
| 26 | PAWN |
Weakest man, hand on heart in earnest (4)
|
| PAW (hand) + [ear]N[est] |
Very approachable and several smiles
I do not remember exactly but I think I went in the same order as Pete.
My favourites were STRIPTEASE, PAWN, COLD TURKEY, PARENT, and BUSTARD.
TEMERITY was the only unparsed clue, so thanks for clearing that up
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Thanks Mudd and Pete. I definitely started in the NW corner.
23ac: This was my last one in, and I still was not completely happy with the parsing when I had another look just before the blog was due. I think it is meant to be I’LL, sounding like AISLE (passageway) with “suggested” as the soundalike indicator, + SAY, indicated by the question mark as a standard indicator for a definition by example. Punctuation must not be ignored.
Ah.
Didn’t see this, but I was hoping to see a blog of the puzzle in the FT for the bank holiday weekend. A large, lightly themed puzzle by Guy.A nice puzzle but we are stumped by 46a. I have one possible answer but not satisfied either that it quite meets the definition or, still less, the word play.
Most of this went in fairly easily, leaving me with just 12ac and 11dn. I thought the former had to be START OUT but took ages to see the parsing. That left just 11dn which I was sure had to be a bird but all I could think of to fit the crossing letters was an unparsed ‘vulture’. D’oh!
Thanks, though, to Mudd and Pete.
I too only saw the “Jumbo” crossword. Why do all newspapers assume we have more time on a bank holiday weekend and produce bigger puzzles?
Likewise I’m stuck on 46ac.
Andrew@3 and Babbler@5: At least the FT (at least on the website) is now giving us a standard sized puzzle as well. I just solve that and ignore the jumbo. A year before I retired, someone told me that one thing about being retired is that you never get any holidays.
In fairness I don’t mind the bigger ones if not too complicated, and we enjoyed doing this weekend’s with a house guest over a couple of sessions. (And I much prefer newspaper to online).
But I would like to understand 46ac!
Where was puzzle 18142? I’ve thrown the paper out now, but I don’t recall seeing an extra puzzle; just the usual one in the magazine which is only half cryptic.
Babbler@8: So far as I know, 18,142 was only published online. There should be a section “Today’s Cryptics” somewhere on this page. On my laptop, it is top left, but on the mobile phone it is below the comments. The FT link gets me to a menu from which all recent FT puzzles can be found.
Thanks Mudd. Except for a couple of awkward surfaces I thoroughly enjoyed this with my top picks being AT HOME, STRIPTEASE, COLD TURKEY, STAG (LOI), STRAIGHT, GELATIN, and MALAWI. Thanks Pete for the blog.
I too looked for the solution to Guy’s Jumbo crossword 18141 and I too am completely stumped by 46ac ! I like the Jumbo crosswords on Bank Holiday weekends although it just 46ac I have struggled with !
I have Sankara as Jumbo 46a. Holed = sank as in battleship, ara odd letters in airbag.
But to define Indian Philosopher as Sankara seems rather tenuous, unless I’m missing something.
Bob@12, 13: I thought of SANK = holed as in she sank a 15-foot putt, usage example under sink 16 in Collins 2023 p 1855. The answer Sankara was unfamiliar to me, but is given in Collins p 1763 as n 8th century AD, Hindu philosopher, the leading exponent of the Vedantic school. Had I actually been solving the whole puzzle, I would have been trying this unaided, and would have been reduced to a guess between the past tense SANK and the past participle SUNK for the word defined by “holed”. I think I would probably have guessed right, but that is of little importance.
Bob@13: The clue in the online version I saw says “Hindu philosopher” not “Indian”, and I think it is important to note that the person has been defined by the phrase, not the other way round.
Note; I was not going to be the first to give the answer, but now it has been given, I felt able to give my explanation.
27a – there’s an interesting alternative route to the answer here. A Kilo is unit of mass, colloquially. A Gram is literally a retro (from the past) word for a letter / symbol. Is this another layer to the clue, or unintended?? I’m completely new to cryptic crosswords…
Belonger, Thank you for commenting. I think it is well worth noting that ‘retro symbol’ could clue GRAM. But I doubt that the clue is suggesting anything intentionally.