Puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 28, 2026
I worked through most of this fairly quickly but then needed some help for 1 (TROLLEYBUS). My favourite clues are 9 (PLUM), 11 (UMBRIA) and 28 (DREADLOCKS). Thank you, Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TROLLEYBUS |
Fizz with Liz? According to Spooner, one must have high connections (10)
|
| Spoonerism of “Bolly Truss” (fizz with Liz) with a cryptic definition, ‘Bolly’ being a nickname for Bollinger champagne and ‘Liz’ being former PM Liz Truss. | ||
| 7 | I-SPY |
International agent game for a journey (1-3)
|
| I (International) + SPY (agent) | ||
| 9 | PLUM |
Cushy professor some might suspect of murder (4)
|
| Double definition with the second referring to the character Professor Plum in the board game Cluedo | ||
| 10 | CHRONICLES |
Good books Charlie read initially during awfully nice hols (10)
|
| C (Charlie) and R (read) in (during) anagram (awfully) of NICE HOLS | ||
| 11 | UMBRIA |
Ms Thurman tours Berlin regularly — a lovely part of Europe (6)
|
| B[e]R[l]II[n] in UMA (Ms Thurman) | ||
| 12 | UBERGEEK |
Egghead, upper-class, rolling beer keg (8)
|
| U (upper-class) + anagram (rolling) of BEER KEG | ||
| 13 | APOLOGIA |
VW model Golf, one covered by drivers association case in writing (8)
|
| POLO (VW model) + G (golf) + I (one) together in (covered by) + AA (drivers association) | ||
| 15 | ITEM |
Couple Julius became acquainted with from the East (4)
|
| I (Julius] + MET (became acquainted with) backwards (from the east) | ||
| 17 | SNUB |
Cut off U-boat carrying head of navy (4)
|
| N[avy] in (carrying) SUB (U-boat) | ||
| 19 | RANDOMLY |
Managed party, left my trousers in a haphazard way (8)
|
| RAN (managed) + DO (party) + L (left) in (trousers) MY (my) | ||
| 22 | GUERILLA |
Argue about nursing sick fighter (8)
|
| ILL (sick) in (nursing) anagram (about) of ARGUE | ||
| 23 | HOMAGE |
Reverence shown by House receiving Attorney-General (6)
|
| AG (Attorney-General) in (receiving) HOME (house) | ||
| 25 | IRONMONGER |
Press German to acquire second new hardware supplier (10)
|
| IRON (press) + MO (second) + N (new) + GER (German) | ||
| 26 | TROY |
Old city Conservative having a change of heart (4)
|
| TORY (Conservative) with the ‘O’ and ‘R’ switched (having a change of heart) | ||
| 27 | BLAH |
Starts to bite lip after hearing pretentious nonsense (4)
|
| B[ite] L[ip] A[fter] H[earing] | ||
| 28 | DREADLOCKS |
500 dark close curls? (10)
|
| D (500) + anagram (curls) of DARK CLOSE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ROLLMOP |
Piece of bread to soak up herring (7)
|
| ROLL (piece of bread) + MOP (to soak up) | ||
| 3 | LEMUR |
Madagascan resident implicated in vile murder (5)
|
| Hidden word (implicated in) | ||
| 4 | EXCHANGE |
Swap futures traded here (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | BERMUDA TRIANGLE |
British let marine guard at sea in dangerous waters (7,8)
|
| B (British) + anagram (at sea) of LET MARINE GUARD. I would have put a question mark on the clue. | ||
| 6 | SONNET |
Set up 10 numbers, 14 lines? (6)
|
| TEN (10) + NOS (numbers) backwards (set up) | ||
| 7 | INCOGNITO |
Unidentified independent northern firm overturned voting after sacking five (9)
|
| I (independent) + N (northern) + CO (firm) + [v]OTING backwards (overturned) | ||
| 8 | PRECEDE |
Go before priest, thin on top (7)
|
| P (priest) + RECEDE (thin on top) | ||
| 14 | LABYRINTH |
Arrangement of intricate passages a feature of The Listener? (9)
|
| Double definition with the second referring to the human ear | ||
| 16 | ANCHORED |
Charon at work, exhausted, drained, moored on the Styx (8)
|
| Anagram (at work) of CHARON + E[xhauste]D | ||
| 18 | NEUTRAL |
Like Switzerland, nervous about the introduction of tariffs (7)
|
| T[ariffs] in (about) NEURAL (nervous) | ||
| 20 | LEGWORK |
It’s hard walking stage with old empty rucksack (7)
|
| LEG (stage) + W (with) + O (old) + R[ucksac]K | ||
| 21 | ALMOND |
Former SNP big beast losing his head (nut) (6)
|
| [s]ALMOND (former SNP big beast losing his head) referring to Alex Salmond | ||
| 24 | MOTTO |
Rear up, banish British slogan! (5)
|
| [b]OTTOM (rear, banish British) backwards (up) |
I too liked PLUM and UMBRIA
Also INCOGNITO, LABYRINTH
Don’t like rollmops.
Thanks Julius and Pete Maclean
A great weekend diversion from Julius as per, starting with the wonderful Spoonerism in 1a!
Other picks included APOLOGIA, DREADLOCKS, MOTTO and the devious 12a, my last one in. I needed all the crossers for the latter to see that the wordplay was ‘beer keg’ + ‘u’, rather than ‘egghead’ + ‘u’. Nice!
Thanks to Julius and Pete for the blog.
Another set of excellent clues from Julius
I best liked PRECEDE, I SPY, RANDOMLY, DREADLOCKS, MOTTO, SNUB (for its misdirection), NEUTRAL, and SONNET
Thanks to Solomon yesterday for teaching me about the VW Polo, as it helped today. NHO ROLLMOP and I could not parse LABYRINTH given, it turns out, my insufficient knowledge of anatomy. I only parsed ALMOND after research – SALMOND was remote for this non-UK solver. While on the topic I guess I should play Cluedo one day, so I can get those clues more easily.
Thanks Julius and Pete
Liked TROLLEYBUS, DREADLOCKS, PRECEDE and NEUTRAL.
INCOGNITO
a very minor point:
OTING overturned—>reversed
ANCHORED
What is the significance of ‘on the Styx’?
Thanks Julius and Pete.
Thanks for the blog , great set of clues right from the off with TROLLEYBUS .
As Charon ferries you across the Styx you hand him your Obol and he says – Welcome to Hades , here are your bagpipes .
KVa@4 the Styx is one of the rivers you can cross to get to the underworld using Charon as the ferryman .
Martyn@3 Alex Salmond was replaced as SNP leader by Nicola Sturgeon , very fishy , worth remembering .
A dnf, had to reveal the t before twigging the bolly truss trick, tho I well remember the buses [at one corner, the contacts sometimes jumped off the wires; the driver had a long hook for reconnecting them].
Roz@5
ANCHORED
My point was that ‘moored’ would have worked as the def without the ‘on the Styx’.
I could see that the phrase made the surface better, but was it essential for arriving
at the solution?
What you say is true, KVa (and I do like a pithy clue), but a little meat on the bare bones of this particular clue makes it one to be savoured, I find!
😊👍🏼
Most enjoyable. UBERGEEK was a new word to us, not in Chambers, but the said dictionary has ‘uber-‘ as a prefix so no problem there. We liked TROLLEYBUS and APOLOGIA.
Thanks, Julius and Pete.
Another excellent puzzle from Julius.
My ticks were for APOLOGIA, RANDOMLY (I always like that use of ‘trousers’), BERMUDA TRIANGLE and ANCHORED.
Like Diane, I enjoyed the misdirection in UBERGEEK and, particularly, the extra gift in ANCHORED – a great spot.
Thanks, Julius and Pete.
Thanks Julius and Pete
12ac: Further to Big Al@11, none of the standard dictionaries has ubergeek explicitly as a headword, but ODE 2010 p 1924 has an audience composed largely of ubergeeks as a usage example of the prefix uber-.
Four candles!
MOTTO and DREADLOCKS. Absolute class.