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) + anagram (overturned) of [v]OTING | ||
| 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