Puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 9, 2026
As often with Guy, I found this a tough but good solve. And, for what it’s worth two mentions of Elon Musk!
I especially like 12 (MANET), 16 (CREMATION) and 25 (TOUCHED). And I am unsure about 26 (CLOTHESHORSE).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CABINETMAKER |
Magic Mike can’t bear Chippendale’s type (12)
|
| Anagram (magic) of MIKE CANT BEAR. Do we like ‘magic’ as an anagram indicator? I do not recall its being used as such before. | ||
| 9 | CARIBOU |
Roughly bone your skinned deer (7)
|
| CA (roughly, i.e. cerca) + RIB (bone) + [y]OU[r] | ||
| 10 | MICROBE |
Bug right between audio equipment and gong (7)
|
| MIC (audio equipment) + R (right) + OBE (gong) | ||
| 11 | POTHERBS |
Best times to collect different plants from kitchen garden (8)
|
| OTHER (different) in (to collect) PBS (best times, i.e..Personal Bests) | ||
| 12 | MANET |
He painted intelligent creatures from different worlds (5)
|
| MAN (an intelligent creature) + ET (another intelligent creature – from a different world) | ||
| 14 | THEIR |
His or her Tesla first in line, say (5)
|
| T[esla] + HEIR (first in line say) | ||
| 16 | CREMATION |
Use of incinerator making nurses warm, finally (9)
|
| [war]M in (nurses) CREATION (making) | ||
| 17 | CRASH-TEST |
Court east of Paris holding hasty trial with dummies? (5-4)
|
| RASH (hasty) in (holding) CT (court) + EST (east of Paris, i.e. in French) | ||
| 18 | SIGHT |
Sense most of the soldiers retreating (5)
|
| TH[e] + GIS (soldiers) all backwards (retreating) | ||
| 20 | MECCA |
Cycling clubs approached ultimate destination (5)
|
| C (clubs) + CAME (approached) circularly shifted twice to the left | ||
| 21 | EMACIATE |
European ally taking US agency’s waste away (8)
|
| E (European) + CIA (US agency) in (taking) MATE (ally) | ||
| 24 | UTENSIL |
Instrument lutenist plays without repeat (7)
|
| Anagram (plays) of LUTENIS[t] | ||
| 25 | TOUCHED |
A little cuckoo moved (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | CLOTHESHORSE |
Modelling cool threads, he’s striking advertisement? (12)
|
| Anagram (modelling) of COOL THRE[ad]S HES &Lit. I originally missed the anagram and suspected a cryptic definition. My thanks to Cineraria for revealing the truth. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COCKPIT |
Set upright then tilt back driver’s seat (7)
|
| COCK (set upright) + TIP (tilt) backwards | ||
| 2 | BURY THE HATCHET |
Cheetah hurt by shot and head of tribe make friends (4,3,7)
|
| Anagram (shot) of CHEETAH HURT BY + T[ribe] | ||
| 3 | NOBLE |
Impressive rise of Musk with billions banked (5)
|
| B (billions) in (banked) ELON (Musk) backwards (rise of) | ||
| 4 | THUMBSCREW |
Ergo rowers getting doctor in, for agonising cramp (10)
|
| MB (doctor) in THUS (ergo) + CREW (rowers) | ||
| 5 | ARMY |
Combined units harm you internally (4)
|
| Hidden word (internally) | ||
| 6 | ENCOMPASS |
Involve son after pitching one’s camp (9)
|
| Anagram (pitching) of ONES CAMP + S (son) | ||
| 7 | FOUNDING FATHER |
Country builder discovered during harvest pinching bit of fruit (8,6)
|
| FOUND (discovered) + IN (during) + F[ruit] in GATHER (harvest) | ||
| 8 | SEXTON |
Rude message about church attendant (6)
|
| SEXT (rude message) + ON (about) | ||
| 13 | CENTIMETRE |
Length of prison sentence heart-breaking? (10)
|
| TIME (prison sentence) in (breaking) CENTRE (heart). To my mind, ‘centimetre’ is a unit of length not length per se. | ||
| 15 | REHEARSAL |
Judges again shortened every trial (9)
|
| RE-HEARS (judges again) + AL[l] (shortened every) | ||
| 17 | CAMPUS |
French novelist keeps parking in academic’s place (6)
|
| P (parking) in (keeps) CAMUS (French novelist) | ||
| 19 | TREADLE |
Pedal lad customised in orange, say (7)
|
| Anagram (customized) of LAD in TREE (orange, say) | ||
| 22 | COUCH |
Seat in squat that’s lost stuffing from arm (5)
|
| C{r]OUCH (squat) with the ‘R’ removed (that lost stuffing from arm) | ||
| 23 | FLIT |
Force drunk to keep moving (4)
|
| F (force) + LIT (drunk). This is a new meaning of ‘lit’ for me. |
CLOTHESHORSE is &lit. and anagram of (modelling) COOL THRE[AD]S HE’S minus (striking) AD (advertisement).
Good blog.
Liked MANET, POTHERBS, CREMATION, CLOTHESHORSE, FOUNDING FATHER and CENTIMETRE (tho I share the blogger’s comment regarding the def).
MANET: (two) intelligent creatures from (two) different worlds—>MAN and ET (a very slight difference, or I am saying the same thing in different words).
Thanks Guy and Pete.
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues and just right for a Saturday . I agree with Cineraria @1 for CLOTHESHORSE and refreshing to see a male model used for this term . THEIR , T = Tesla nothing to do with Musk , it is the SI unit named after the great Nikola Tesla . I am fine with CENTIMETRE for length , used in this sense for particular wave-bands in astronomy . SEXTON , the term sext was new to me but not for long , I thought it was one of the church hours . CABINETMAKER a great definition , magic can be a verb meaning to transform .
Very enjoyable esp cabinetmaker for the surface. Thx both
Like Roz and James, my favourite had to be CABINETMAKER for the inspired use of Magic Mike and the amusing image it conjured of the Channing Tatum character disliking a rival stripper (I suppose a Chippendale chair would be too refined for his act!) It was closely followed by CLOTHESHORSE, one who dons rather than doffs clothes for a living. A clever, if at times tricky crossword.
Thanks to Guy and Pete.
Thank you Cineraria.
PB is a new abbreviation for me. Has it been used before? I’ll try to remember it as I expect it will crop up again.
Babbler@7 watch the world swimming championships , every swimmer interviewed will talk about doing a PB . I have even head PBing , almost as bad as podiuming .
Thanks Guy for the weekend entertainment. Many favourites as usual including CABINETMAKER, CREMATION, SIGHT, EMACIATE, NOBLE, REGEARSAL, and CAMPUS. Thanks Pete for the blog.
I found this difficult and heavy on charades. I ticked EMACIATE. Perhaps I was not in the right mood.
It was nice to see Diane’s comment. I have not seen her post for a while.
Thanks Guy and Pete
Comment #11