Puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 16, 2026
Thank you Julius for another gem. My top favourite has to be 17 (UP IN ARMS) and I also like 1 (CLAIRVOYANCE), 3 (INDUSTRY), 9 (CAYMAN ISLANDS), 14 (EL SALVADOR), 26 (FINLAND) and 28 (ERROR MESSAGE).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CLAIRVOYANCE |
Medium strength? (12)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 10 | KINGDOM |
Family dog barking madly first thing, in a state (7)
|
| KIN (family) + anagram (barking) of DOG + M[adly] | ||
| 11 | LIBERIA |
Large peninsula country (7)
|
| L (large) + IBERIA (peninsula) | ||
| 12 | LOBOS |
Buffalo, Boston hosting Timberwolves (5)
|
| Hidden word (hosting) | ||
| 13 | MOMENTUM |
Second mother sat outside hospital dept (Labour wing) (8)
|
| MO (second) + ENT (hospital dept) in (outside) MUM (mother) | ||
| 15 | TOWER BLOCK |
Building support for Anne Boleyn finally? (5,5)
|
| Double/cryptic definition | ||
| 16 | SCAN |
Closely examine Head of Chambers in hospital (4)
|
| C[hambers] in (in) SAN (hospital) | ||
| 18 | NAAN |
Bit on the side for Indian that swings both ways? (4)
|
| Palindrome | ||
| 20 | CAPRI PANTS |
Cold day in spring, gasps in short trousers (5,5)
|
| C (cold) + APR I (day in spring!) + PANTS (gasps) | ||
| 22 | TAKE FIVE |
Standard advice regarding daily fruit & veg portions? (4,4)
|
| Double definition with the first referring to the jazz standard from Dave Brubeck | ||
| 24 | NORMA |
Work from Milan or Mantua? (5)
|
| Hidden word (from) with the definition referring presumably to Vicenzo Bellini’s opera | ||
| 26 | FINLAND |
Discovery Network is opening the country (7)
|
| LAN (network, as in Local Area Network) in (is opening) FIND (discovery) | ||
| 27 | PARTIED |
In flat, retailer regularly held raves (7)
|
| R[e]T[a]I[l]E[r] in (in) PAD (flat) | ||
| 28 | ERROR MESSAGE |
Gutted Endeavour Morse rages over PC’s unhelpful response (5,7)
|
| E[ndeavou]R + anagram (over) of MORSE RAGES | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | LONGBOW |
Response to standing ovation, one for The Archers? (7)
|
| LONG BOW (response to standing ovation) | ||
| 3 | INDUSTRY |
Business run in Indiana (Springfield) (8)
|
| R (run) in (in) IN (Indiana) + DUSTY (Springfield). By the way, despite there being around 32 Springfields in the USA, there is none in Indiana. | ||
| 4 | VAMP |
Seductress undressed Evan, elected UK politician (4)
|
| [e]VA[n] + MP (elected UK politician) | ||
| 5 | YELLOW CARD |
Caution chicken about road? (6,4)
|
| YELLOW (chicken) + RE (about) + RD (road) | ||
| 6 | NOBLE |
“Vote against British!” — the French aristo (5)
|
| NO (vote against) + B (British) + LE (the French) | ||
| 7 | ERRATIC |
Idle traitor, boring, capricious (7)
|
| RAT (traitor) in (boring) ERIC (Idle) | ||
| 8 | SKELETON STAFF |
The headcount’s down to the bare bones (8,5)
|
| I am unsure about this one. I find it hard to pick out a definition short of the whole clue. But if the whole clue is intended as definition then it seems hardly cryptic. | ||
| 9 | CAYMAN ISLANDS |
Work on many scandals involving international tax shelter (6,7)
|
| I (international) in (involving) anagram (work on) of MANY SCANDALS | ||
| 14 | EL SALVADOR |
Land after flying over Dallas (2,8)
|
| Anagram (after flying) of OVER DALLAS | ||
| 17 | UP IN ARMS |
Hotly protesting bonkers puritanism banning bonking (2,2,4)
|
| Anagram (bonkers) of PUR[it]ANISM | ||
| 19 | ASKANCE |
Request jig, leaving daughter looking sceptically (7)
|
| ASK (request) + [d]ANCE (jig leaving daughter) | ||
| 21 | NURSING |
Chant in support of old railway union, a caring profession (7)
|
| NUR (old railway union) + SING (chant). Growing up in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century one heard plenty about the National Union of Railwaymen. Thanks to a merger the NUR became history in 1990. | ||
| 23 | FLAIR |
Football’s wingers display talent (5)
|
| F[ootbal]L + AIR (display) | ||
| 25 | APSE |
Leaders of all parties support Easter recess (4)
|
| A[ll] P[arties] S[upport] E[aster] |
Lovely grid for a Sunday! I had trouble parsing a few including 8D and 22D, and was eagerly waiting for the blog 🙂
Shouldn’t the annotation for 5D have
CA (about) instead of RE (about)?
Ta, Julius & Pete!
I could have ticked any number of clues, but managed to limit myself to NAAN (he made me go through a mental list of swing bowlers), LONGBOW, EL SALVADOR, TOWER BLOCK and CLAIRVOYANCE (LOI that took some time to come to me).
All parsed except CAPRI PANTS, as I did not think of APR 1 and wondered where the L in “April” went. I was not sure about SKELETON STAFF either.
Thanks Julius and Pete