Puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 25, 2026
I found this a little more difficult than the usual Julius, especially considering a new term to me at 15 (WINCEYETTE). The grid is unusual with a preponderance of four-letter answers. My favourites are 5 (TAXI), 10 (PIAF) and 29 (CENOTAPH). Thank you Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | GEISHA |
Entertaining woman featured in Messiah/Siegfried retrospective (6)
|
| Reverse (retrospective) hidden word (featured in) | ||
| 9 | MEATLOAF |
Julius — ace tenor, idle singer… (8)
|
| ME (Jullius) + A (ace) + T (tenor) + LOAF (idle) | ||
| 10 | PIAF |
…one who didn’t regret nicking large part of rice dish (4)
|
| PI[l]AF (nicking large part of rice dish) with the definition referring to the song “Je Ne Regrette Rien” | ||
| 11 | DOG BISCUIT |
Big studio ordered to bring in cold snack for Lassie (3,7)
|
| C (cold) in (to bring in) anagram (ordered) of BIG STUDIO | ||
| 12 | FATE |
Rich European lot (4)
|
| FAT (rich) + E (European) | ||
| 13 | ROADWORTHY |
Wary going out with hot rod? At least it’s driveable (10)
|
| Anagram (going out) of WARY HOT ROD | ||
| 17 | KEPI |
Stupid boy’s cycling headgear (4)
|
| PIKE (stupid boy) with halves switched (cycling). I take it that ‘Pike’ refers to a character in the sitcom “Dad’s Army”. ‘Kepi’ is familiar to me as a French word meaning some kind of headgear; Collins tells me that it is a military cap with a circular top and a horizontal peak. | ||
| 18 | ALIEN |
Buzz A’s commander rejected extraterrestrial life (5)
|
| NEIL A[rmstrong] backwards (rejected) with Buzz referring to Buzz Aldrin; Thanks to BC for helping me with this one. | ||
| 19 | BAWL |
Cry loudly, run away from fight (4)
|
| B[r]AWL (run away from fight) | ||
| 21 | BLEAK HOUSE |
Book dull, cheerless hotel by river in York (5,5)
|
| BLEAK (dull, cheerless) + H (hotel) + OUSE (river in York) | ||
| 23 | IRIS |
Current PM once denied greeting one of the Murdochs (4)
|
| I (current) + RIS[hi] (PM once denied greeting) | ||
| 24 | GETHSEMANE |
Brought back titles penned by German writer leaving old part of Jerusalem (10)
|
| NAMES (titles) backwards in (penned by) G[o]ETHE (German writer leaving ‘O’) | ||
| 28 | HOSE |
Socks husband, tip of nose splits (4)
|
| H (husband) + [n]OSE | ||
| 29 | CENOTAPH |
Place for quiet contemplation; silence — not a phone is ringing (8)
|
| Hidden word (is ringing) | ||
| 30 | TALLOW |
Grease — Travolta gutted, left depressed (6)
|
| T[ravot]A + L (left) + LOW (depressed) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HERITAGE |
St Petersburg museum wasted millions in legacy (8)
|
| HER[m]ITAGE (St Petersburg wasted millions) | ||
| 2 | ASAFOETIDA |
Curry ingredient, a fine old eastern note carried by supermarket (10)
|
| A (a) + F(fine) + O (old) + E (eastern) + TI (note) in (carried by) ASDA (supermarket) | ||
| 3 | BALDERDASH |
Revolutionary Labour on the rise? — cobblers (10)
|
| RED (revolutionary) LAB (labour) backwards (revolutionary) + DASH (—) | ||
| 4 | SMUG |
Sticks up, wearing self- satisfied expression (4)
|
| GUMS (sticks) backwards (up) | ||
| 5 | TAXI |
Head for the runway? I’m obliged, Mr President (4)
|
| TA (I’m obliged) + XI (Mr President, of China that is) | ||
| 6 | BLOC |
British colonel upset the EU, for one (4)
|
| B (British) + COL (colonel) backwards (upset) | ||
| 7 | BANISH |
Expel Nazi extremists in party (6)
|
| N[az]I in (in) BASH (party) | ||
| 14 | ADIEU |
Goodbye card finally that is sealed in gold envelope (5)
|
| [car]D + IE (that is) in (sealed in) AU (gold envelope) | ||
| 15 | WINCEYETTE |
Flinch, however put on skirts of terylene material (10)
|
| WINCE (flinch) + YET (however) T[erylen]E | ||
| 16 | RABBIT HOLE |
Bugs seen here when formatting Bible & Torah (6,4)
|
| Anagram (formatting) of BIBLE TORAH with the definition referring to Bugs Bunny | ||
| 20 | WAINSCOT |
Product used for skirting wagon tax (8)
|
| WAIN (wagon) + SCOT (tax) | ||
| 22 | LIEDER |
German numbers Merz announced? (6)
|
| Homophone (announced) of “leader” ([Chancellor Friedrich] Merz) | ||
| 25 | HOOK |
Catch headless chicken from Australia (4)
|
| [c]HOOK (headless chicken from Australia). I remember seeing ‘chook’ on restaurant menus in Australia. | ||
| 26 | EGAD |
Curse editor burying good article (4)
|
| G (good) + A (article) together in (burying) ED (editor) | ||
| 27 | ACHE |
Long hour sat in American church (4)
|
| A (American) + H (hour) in A (American) + CE (church) |
Nice crossword. I agree with you, Pete, that it was a bit more difficult than many other Julius puzzles
I ticked EGAD, BALDERDASH, CENOTAPH and LIEDER
I can pinpoint some areas of difficulty for me. It took a while to spot the cleverly hidden CENOTAPH and took ages to realise how TAXI is “head for the runway”. I thought parsing of ALIEN was a bit remote (I only saw the parsing on my second visit to the puzzle). And, unusually for Julius, there were a couple of NHOs too.
Thanks Julius and Pete
I loved ALIEN once I realised the definition wasn’t buzz after all.
Failed on NHO 2D which would have helped with 17A, which turned out to be a favourite, having stupidly missed the stupid boy reference completely.
My picks: DOG BISCUIT, ALIEN, CENOTAPH, TAXI and RABBIT HOLE.
Thanks Julius and Pete.
Lovely crossword. I found the top half went in quite quickly (except for TAXI) but the bottom half, particularly, the SW took longer. I too took ages to spot the hidden CENOTAPH.
Like Martyn @1 I liked EGAD, LIEDER. I also liked ASAFOETIDA (at first I was looking for Aldi as the supermarket) PIAF, WINCEYETTE (at first I put wincelette which is one way of spelling it but it didn’t parse) GETHSEMANE.
Thanks Julius and Pete