Puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 18, 2025
As usual with Guy, I found this a challenging puzzle and took some time to work through it. My favourites are 2 (SURPASS) , 7 (HASHISH), 8 (FLYING BOAT) and 27 (AVERAGE).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DISTILLERY |
Less bubbly bottled by home-made drinks business (10)
|
| STILLER (less bubbly) in (bottled by) DIY (home-made) | ||
| 6 | CHEF |
Course designer’s sketch effectively lacking margins (4)
|
| Hidden word (lacking margins) with a cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | KARACHI |
American artist wearing silk welcome in Asian city (7)
|
| A (American) + RA (artist) together in (weaing) KC + HI (welcome) | ||
| 10 | MAJESTY |
Joke puncturing PM’s dignity at Buckingham Palace? (7)
|
| JEST (joke) in (puncturing) MAY (PM) | ||
| 12 | PAINTBRUSH |
Stick with sable, perhaps putting coat on? (10)
|
| Cryptic definition. The business end of paint brushes can be made from sable fur. | ||
| 13 | INN |
Coach stop once, filling station at the back (3)
|
| IN (filling) + [statio]N | ||
| 15 | INSTEP |
Arch conforming with others (6)
|
| IN STEP (conforming with others) | ||
| 16 | MEMSAHIB |
Mike rehashed BAME with his Indian missus (8)
|
| M (mike) + anagram (rehashed) of BAME HIS. ‘BAME’ being an abbreviation of “lack, Asian, and minority ethnic”. | ||
| 18 | SWEETIES |
Second baby of couple, what child really wants? (8)
|
| S (second) + WEE (baby) + TIES (couple) | ||
| 20 | JERBOA |
Jumper 23 has left with scarf, tiny jumper (6)
|
| J[ump]ER (jumper 23 has left) + BOA (scarf) | ||
| 23 | UMP |
In short, official considering appeals bound to ignore judge (3)
|
| [j]UMP (bound to ignore jump) | ||
| 24 | BUFFOONERY |
Old, single railway enthusiast starts fooling around (10)
|
| BUFF (enthusiast) O (old) + ONE (single) + RY (railway) | ||
| 26 | FORBEAR |
Choose to avoid terror gripping globe (7)
|
| ORB (globe) in (gripping) FEAR (terror) | ||
| 27 | AVERAGE |
Typical hail storm (7)
|
| AVE (hail, in Latin) + RAGE (storm) | ||
| 28 | TORN |
Rent until military service (4)
|
| TO (until) + RN (military service) | ||
| 29 | TROTSKYITE |
Red bible books and blue in stock (10)
|
| OT (bible books) + SKY (blue) in (in) TRITE (stock) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DYKE |
Bank held up by cheeky down-and-out (4)
|
| Reverse and hidden word | ||
| 2 | SURPASS |
Excel in French on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue (7)
|
| SUR (in French) + PASS (I’m sorry i haven’t a clue) | ||
| 3 | INCONTESTABLE |
During trick unoccupied trapeze remaining fixed, beyond doubt (13)
|
| IN (during) + CON (trick) + T[rapez]E + STABLE (remaining fixed) | ||
| 4 | LAID BY |
Two thirds of ladybirds in a storm saved (4,2)
|
| Anagram (in a storm) of LADYBI[rds] | ||
| 5 | RUMOURED |
Odd person running the FT in whispers (8)
|
| RUM (odd) + OUR ED (person running the FT) | ||
| 7 | HASHISH |
Guy’s Hospital stores bodily remains in pot (7)
|
| ASH (bodily remains) in (stores) HIS (guy’s) + H (hospital) | ||
| 8 | FLYING BOAT |
Plane for which Spooner’s acquiring pontoon? (6,4)
|
| Spoonerism of “buying float” (acquiring pontoon) | ||
| 11 | JOHN STEINBECK |
Writer keeping ten nibs he changed in DJ (4,9)
|
| Anagram (changed) of TEN NIBS HE in (in) JOCK (DJ) | ||
| 14 | MISS MUFFET |
Drop hand covering creature that made Drew Barrymore scream (she’s arachnophobic) (4,6)
|
| MISS (drop) + MUFF (hand covering) + ET (creature that made Drew Barrymore scream, in “ET the Extra-Terrestrial”.. | ||
| 17 | SEAFARER |
When chatting, notice prettier cruise passenger? (8)
|
| Homophone (when chatting) of “see fairer” (notice prettier) | ||
| 19 | EMPORER |
Man with lands arranged more fences for each (7)
|
| PER (for each) in (fences) anagram (arranged) of MORE. (Corrected.) | ||
| 21 | BIRYANI |
I vote against steak over rice dish (7)
|
| I (I) + NAY (vote against) RIB (steak) all backwards (over) | ||
| 22 | COBALT |
Fellow Estonian, possibly kind of blue (6)
|
| CO BALT (fellow Estonian possibly) with ‘Balt’ meaning someone from the Baltic countries | ||
| 25 | HERE |
In attendance to learn from lecturer? (4)
|
| Homophone (from lecturer) of “hear” to learn |
Thanks Guy and Pete
19dn: I think this is PER in anagram of MORE, giving the answer EMPEROR.
Agree with Pelham re the parsing of EMPEROR in which ‘per’ is inside the rearranged ‘more’ (fences).
Got off to a great start with this then got stuck on a handful of clues, needing a break before a second successful crack at the remaining ones.
Took ages for the penny to drop, for instance, with JERBOA and TROTSKYITE but rewarding when it did.
I came here, though, to see the inner workings of KARACHI which evaded me despite the answer being clear – forgot about KC meaning ‘silk’.
Liked MAJESTY, INSTEP, JERBOA and RUMOURED best of all. The surface for MISS MUFFET was neat, too, given that Drew Barrymore was also in the film Scream.
Thanks for a proper workout this weekend, Guy, and to Pete for the blog.
Thanks Guy. My first run through yielded precious little and I thought I would bail but slowly things came into focus. It was a rewarding exercise in the end; I needed outside help only for TROTSKYITE. My top picks were the cleverly hidden CHEF, UMP, FORBEAR, AVERAGE, and COBALT. Most of the parsing fell into place but I couldn’t account for ‘of’ in the clue for SWEETIES. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Like you, Tony, I thought 18A a bit strange. I assumed it must be ‘tie’s’ from ‘of [the] couple’ because ‘ties’ doesn’t work as ‘couple’ for me.
I did rather poorly on this one. Was happy to get the ones I did get. However, I completely crushed the Polymath this week!
Difficult. Too many overly-complicated clues and in this case with too few smiles. I got to JERBOA and almost decided to stop. I guess I was too stubborn. Was Guy trying to show off?
Liked: TORN, AVERAGE, FOREBEAR
22 could have been a hidden clue felLOW ESTonian. 29 – how does stock = trite? For HERE I doubt hear equates to learn but I guess it is alternative 44 in Chambers. I am not convinced by PAINTBRUSH. And for 1d do not see any reverse hidden word indicator.
Thanks Guy and Pete
Diane @4: However you look at 18a it’s awkward. ‘Second baby limits …’ or ‘Second baby secures …’ would work better in my opinion.
Martyn @6,
You could ‘hear/learn’ about something on the grapevine and a ‘stock’ or ‘trite’ answer works in the sense of worn or unoriginal.
I took the ‘held up’ part of the clue as the reversal indicator in 1d which, I only spotted late into the solve.
It’s true that this required a lot of lateral thinking overall!
And yes, Tony @7, ‘secures’ is neater
Thanks Diane
SWEETIES
my take
S+WEE+ TIE’S (of couple)
(Tie as a verb)
Diane@4 has already said ‘of couple’ =TIE’S. Sorry. Hadn’t seen it earlier.
I thought as a noun couple may not equate to TIE. I may be wrong.
One final comment; Pete interprets ‘sable’ in PAINTBRUSH as a colour, which is fine though I saw ‘sable’ as the animal hair used for the bristles on a fine paintbrush. So the ‘coat’ in the surface was lovely, referring both to a coat/layer of paint or a fur coat.
All seems a long time ago but overall an enjoyable puzzle from what I remember.
Please can the blog be published sooner? The app tells you if you are right once you have filled it in and there is no prize, so I don’t understand the delay.
12a I think sable hair is used as the bristles in the best paint brushes so it’s a double cryptic definition.
Liked Buffoonery and Trotskyite.
I agree with Diane @12 and James @13 – my better, expensive, watercolour brushes have sable tips, as in the filaments come from the animal. Also available squirrel and badger paintbrushes, although the badger seem to be for oils.
I’m with those who found this tough, the top half going in OK, but the bottom half slower with SWEETIES a bit confusing and TROTSKYITE my last in with help.
Thank you to Guy and Pete Maclean.
Agree this was quite a tough solve. Some very clever clues – CHEF, FORBEAR, TORN etc. I got there in the end, but had to dig the recesses of my childhood memory to get MISS MUFFET. Like others, I wasn’t convinced by PAINTBRUSH because the sable link doesn’t really work. And the parsing of SWEETIES was a bit odd.
Thank you all for the comments and corrections. I had had no idea that paint brushes could be made with sable fur.
For some reason, I found this quite hard, but not at all unfairly so. Getting a few crossers helped a lot.