Telegraph Mini No. 1,426
October 16, 2026The Telegraph's Mini Crossword is a small grid of quick clues, usually a minute or two. Below, every clue with its letter count; take the first letters if you want a nudge, or tap one answer at a time. Play it on the Telegraph.
Hint: every answer's first letter
- 1 Across: G
- 4 Across: P
- 6 Across: A
- 7 Across: P
- 8 Across: A
- 1 Down: G
- 2 Down: A
- 3 Down: G
- 4 Down: P
- 5 Down: O
Today's clues and answers
Tap an answer to see it, so you can take one and leave the rest.
Across
- 1 Across Joke; means of keeping someone quiet (3) GAG
- 4 Across Lively Bohemian dance (5) POLKA
- 6 Across To no ___, fruitlessly (5) AVAIL
- 7 Across Tubular pasta (5) PENNE
- 8 Across Joiner used in a sentence (3) AND
Down
- 1 Down Thyroid or pituitary, e.g. (5) GLAND
- 2 Down Similar (4) AKIN
- 3 Down Dorothy's surname in The Wizard of Oz (4) GALE
- 4 Down Nato alphabet word for P (4) PAPA
- 5 Down "Turn the heating down, it's like an ___ in here!" (4) OVEN
The whole grid, No. 1,426
A mini crossword asks for words. This one asks for a headline.
One real news sentence a day, twenty to thirty words, something that actually happened. Keep the five words a headline would keep and let the rest go. Here is yesterday's, solved.
At Camden Lock, a 71-year-old woman, Beatrice Millar, took off her shoes, jumped in after a drowning man and saved him by holding his head above water.
Five tries. blue is the right word in the right place, orange is one of the five sitting somewhere else, grey is not one of them. The result beats the process, a name or a job beats a place, and the little words never count.
How you finish decides which sticker you keep.
