Puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 6, 2026
I quickly managed to fill the top right triangular half and then had some toil to complete the rest. My favourite clues here are 2 (LIKE A SHOT) and 18 (ASPARAGUS). Non-Brits may have had difficulty with the fish in 22 (DAB) and the sandwich in 23 (BACON).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FLYING SQUIRREL |
Dishonest gent hiding right inside extremely full glider (6,8)
|
| LYING (dishonest) + R (right) in (inside) SQUIRE (gent) together in (hiding) F[ul]L | ||
| 10 | NAKED |
Uncovered wound on doffing of cap (5)
|
| [s]NAKED (wound on doffing of cap) | ||
| 11 | OVERTONES |
50pc of binary code preceded by clear hints (9)
|
| OVERT (clear) + ONES (50pc of binary code) | ||
| 12 | ARAL SEA |
Lake region a lass on vacation visits (4,3)
|
| A (a) + L[as]S in (visits) AREA (region). The body of water that is called the Aral Sea is actually a lake. | ||
| 13 | NEST EGG |
Reserve twisting leg gets enough nurses (4,3)
|
| Reverse (twisting) hidden word (nurses) | ||
| 14 | ETHOS |
Drunk European recalled drinking hard spirit (5)
|
| H (hard) in (drinking) SOT (drunk) E (European) backwards (recalled) | ||
| 16 | DISSIPATE |
Scatter last of chilli on slate with foie gras for one (9)
|
| DISS (slate) + [chill]I + PATE (foie gras for one) | ||
| 19 | MATRIARCH |
She has power test curtailed amid protest? (9)
|
| TRIA[l] (test curtailed) in (amid) MARCH (protest) | ||
| 20 | EXPEL |
Retired half of chapel drive out (5)
|
| EX (retired) + [cha]PEL | ||
| 22 | DABBLED |
Did tinker fish with line in river channel? (7)
|
| DAB (fish) + L (line) in BED (river channel) | ||
| 25 | DEPARTS |
Splits roles after editor retreated (7)
|
| ED (editor) backwards (retreated) + PARTS (roles) | ||
| 27 | COCHINEAL |
Dye calico when tipsy without wife (9)
|
| Anagram (tipsy) of CALICO [w]HEN (without wife) | ||
| 28 | ARGUE |
Fever overwhelming king in dispute (5)
|
| R (king) in (overwhelming) of AGUE (fever) | ||
| 29 | MONKEY BUSINESS |
Mischief working main vehicle among pits with son (6,8)
|
| ON (working) + KEY (main) + BUS (vehicle) in (among) MINES (pits) + S (son). (Corrected.) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | LIKE A SHOT |
Eagerly left Swedish giant’s house ahead of time (4,1,4)
|
| L (left) + IKEA (Swedish giant) + S (‘s) + HO (house) + T (time) | ||
| 3 | INDUS |
Runner not out with regulars from northbound squad (5)
|
| IN (not out) + S[q]U[a]D backwards (northbound) | ||
| 4 | GOOSANDER |
Leave sizeable article on the German duck (9)
|
| GO (leave) + OS (sizeable, short for outsized) + AN (article) + DER (the German) | ||
| 5 | QUEEN |
Odd bringing in note for Republican man on board (5)
|
| QUEER (odd) with the ‘R’ (Republican) changed to ‘N’ (note). And, yes, on a chess board the Queens are “men”. | ||
| 6 | INTESTINE |
Gut section 9 spanning river after 13.00 (9)
|
| I (13:00) + TEST (river) in (spanning) NINE | ||
| 7 | RANGE |
Scope operated on middle of ridgeway (5)
|
| RAN (operated) + [rid]GE[way] | ||
| 8 | LASAGNE |
Altered angle as Mamma’s serving? (7)
|
| Anagram (altered) of ANGLE AS | ||
| 9 | ENRAGE |
Fresh green American incense (6)
|
| Anagram (fresh) of GREEN A (American) | ||
| 15 | STILL LIFE |
Picture kit to make booze at front of magazine (5,4)
|
| STILL (kit to make booze) + LIFE (magazine) | ||
| 17 | SCHEDULES |
Pencils in school Leeds university fabricated (9)
|
| SCH (school) + anagram (fabricated) of LEEDS U (university) | ||
| 18 | ASPARAGUS |
Small soldier breaking silver coating of useless spears? (9)
|
| S (small) + PARA (soldier) in (breaking) AG (silver) + U[seles}S | ||
| 19 | MODICUM |
Little Asian leader oddly chummy (7)
|
| MODI (Asian leader) + C[h]U[m]M[y] | ||
| 21 | LESSEN |
Delivered instruction for shrink (6)
|
| Homophone (delivered) of “lesson” (instruction) | ||
| 23 | BACON |
Not a single taxi around enclosed bit of Sandwich? (5)
|
| NO CAB (not a single cab) backwards (around) | ||
| 24 | DWEEB |
Charlie in LA cut plant inhabiting centre of sandbank (5)
|
| WEE[d] (LA cut plant) in (inhabiting) [san]DB[ank] | ||
| 26 | PRAWN |
Pervert turned up with new cocktail ingredient (5)
|
| WARP (pervert) backwards (turned up) + N (new) |
Thanks Leonidas and Pete
Just one minor point. The parsing for 18dn is currently missing the S (small) before PARA.
Too late to edit the previous comment, 29ac needs ON (working) before KEY.
Thanks Pete and Leonidas.
Building on Pelham Barton, 29a is ON+KEY+BUS in MINES (pits) + S (son). Your parsing gives an extra S.
I’d assume 24a has ‘in LA’ as part of the definition with DWEEB being American slang.
Thanks Leonidas for the weekend entertainment. I enjoyed this quite a bit with my top picks being ETHOS, MATRIARCH, LESSEN, and PRAWN. I wasn’t certain how to parse DABBLED so I assumed ‘dab’ must be some kind of fish. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Found this one more difficult than usual for a Leonidas puzzle but enjoyed tackling it.
Favourites were: FLYING SQUIRREL, GOOSANDER, MONKEY BUSINESS, STILL LIFE, DISSIPATE, LIKE A SHOT
Thanks Leonidas and Pete
A rewarding challenge, as usual from Leonidas. (I don’t remember finding it more or less difficult than expected.)
My favourites were DISSIPATE, MATRIARCH, ENRAGE, SCHEDULES and MODICUM.
Thanks to Leonidas for the fun and Pete for the blog.
Very smooth offering with some fun surfaces including that for FLYING SQUIRREL. Other faves inc COCHINEAL, MONKEY BUSINESS, LIKE A SHOT, ASPARAGUS, BACON and PRAWN.
Thanks both
I agree with Tachi@3 on both points. Collins 2023 p 618 marks dweeb as slang, chiefly US.
I liked this one. Standouts were FLYING SQUIRREL, NEST EGG, GOOSANDER and COCHINEAL.
I enjoyed this one, but didn’t find it straightforward. The bottom half came together quickly, with the top more of a struggle. I thought Flying Squirrel was tremendous but took me a long time to get the Squirrel bit, as I was vainly looking for some sort of aircraft😂. Thank you to all.
My experience was the same as Moly’s -bottom breeze, top tough. I too was looking for aircraft for 1a FLYING SQUIRREL, and it became my favourite once I twigged.
Last one in was 12a ARAL SEA. When is a sea not a sea? When it’s a ral.
Thanks L&P for the fun.
Lot of fun with this one – particularly QUEEN and SCHEDULES. Overall I didn’t find it unusually difficult for Leonidas, but DWEEB and GOOSANDER were new words for me.
So MONKEY BUSINESS was mischievous! My thanks for the corrections.
Fun. But it made me a little hungry. I counted EGG and BACON, PRAWN, sandwich, DAB, chilli, duck, ASPARAGUS and of course LASAGNE. Have I missed any foods? I suppose SQUIRREL but I’ve never tried it.
…and PATE (in DISSIPATE).
Enjoyed the puzzle but missed IKEA as a Swedish giant. Maybe there’s also a further foody allusion to meatballs there.
Braze, thank you for standing in for me and for a fine blog.
I was taking a weekend off while on a short trip to celebrate my birthday.