Puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 11, 2026
My first-in was the very easy 26 (ALAS) and I finished with 9 (XERXES) after struggling a little with the top-left. 1 (HEXAPOD) and 2 (NURSELING) are terms I do not recall coming across before. My favourite clues are 17 (DOUBLE ACT), 19 (NIGHT-BIRDS) with the best Spoonerism I have seen in a while, and the playful 29 (DORMOUSE). Thank you Rosa.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HONEST |
Genuine Polish saint (6)
|
| HONE (polish) + ST (saint) | ||
| 4 | WASHED UP |
Exhausted on the beach? (6,2)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | XERXES |
Ancient king runs off, deprived of love (6)
|
| XER[o]XES (runs off, deprived of ‘0’) | ||
| 10 | SCANDALS |
Examine boy over first of several outrages (8)
|
| SCAN (examine) + LAD (boy) backwards (over) + S[everal] | ||
| 12 | PREVIOUS |
Devout cleric breaks record (8)
|
| REV (cleric) in (breaks) PIOUS (devout) with the definition referring to having a criminal record. | ||
| 13 | SHUFTI |
Silence you, and us, with one look (6)
|
| SH (silence) + U (you) + FT (us) + I (one) | ||
| 15 | DRIP |
Conclusion of sad epitaph for wimp (4)
|
| [sa]D + RIP (epitaph) | ||
| 16 | ROSE GARDEN |
Aged snorer lost bloomers here (4,6)
|
| Anagram (lost) of AGED SNORER | ||
| 19 | NIGHT-BIRDS |
Owls nip trainspotters, according to Spooner (5-5)
|
| Spoonerism of “bite nerds” | ||
| 20 | RUES |
Regrets subterfuge, by the sound of it (4)
|
| Homophone (by the sound of it) of “ruse” (subterfuge) | ||
| 23 | BRANCH |
Subdivision of British farm in US? (6)
|
| B (British) + RANCH (farm in the US) | ||
| 25 | NEW DELHI |
Girl undressed for audience in Asian capital (3,5)
|
| Homophone (for audience) of “nude Ellie” | ||
| 27 | LETHALLY |
Rent room close to hostelry, with fatal consequences (8)
|
| LET (rent) + HALL (room) + .[hostelr]Y | ||
| 28 | SONATA |
Some thoughts on a Taverner composition (6)
|
| Hidden word (some) | ||
| 29 | DORMOUSE |
Busy room used for heavy sleeper (8)
|
| Anagram (busy) of ROOM USED with the definition referring to Alice In Wonderland. Do we like ‘busy’ as an anagram indicator? | ||
| 30 | SNATCH |
Fragment is small, of course (6)
|
| S (small) + NATCH (of course) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HEXAPOD |
Six-footer cast spell over American school (7)
|
| HEX (spell) + A (American) + POD (school, e.g. of whales) | ||
| 2 | NURSELING |
Tear about, heartlessly hawking baby (9)
|
| RUN (tear) backwards (about) + SEL[l]ING (heartlessly hawking) | ||
| 3 | STEVIA |
Finally gets contract done by means of sweetener (6)
|
| [get]S [contrac]T [don]E + VIA (by means of) | ||
| 5 | ARCH |
Curve of flash crash on rebound (4)
|
| Reverse (on rebound) hidden word (of) | ||
| 6 | HENCHMAN |
Heavy, muscular old lady heading to nightclub (8)
|
| HENCH (muscular) + MA (old lady) + N[ightclub] | ||
| 7 | DWARF |
Short conflict in outskirts of Dusseldorf (5)
|
| WAR (conflict) in (in) D[usseldor]F | ||
| 8 | PASSION |
I peg out clothes in heat (7)
|
| :I (I) in (clothes) PASS ON (peg out). To ‘peg out’ means informally to die. | ||
| 11 | OUT OF IT |
Oscar putting on costume, blind drunk (3,2,2)
|
| O (Oscar) in (putting on) OUTFIT (costume) | ||
| 14 | NEEDLES |
Mostly gratuitous taunts (7)
|
| NEEDLES[s] (mostly gratuitous) | ||
| 17 | DOUBLE ACT |
Roughly abduct Leo, Stan and Ollie? (6,3)
|
| Anagram (roughly) of ABDUCT LEO | ||
| 18 | STACCATO |
Feline’s returned with coat badly clipped (8)
|
| CATS (felines) backwards + anagram (badly) of COAT | ||
| 19 | NOBBLED |
Kidnapped aristocrat wept (7)
|
| NOB (aristocrat) + BLED (wept) | ||
| 21 | SPINACH |
On heroin, panics wildly and leaves (7)
|
| Anagram (wildly) of PANICS + H (heroin) | ||
| 22 | ADJOIN |
Neighbour of judge involved in commotion at home (6)
|
| J (judge) in (involved in) ADO (commotion) + IN (at home) | ||
| 24 | ASTIR |
Wine waiter’s last out of bed (5)
|
| ASTI (wine) + [waite]R | ||
| 26 | ALAS |
Railways regularly neglected, sadly (4)
|
| [r]A[i]L[w]A[y]S |
NHO STEVIA but guessed correctly. Some lovely left-field definitions, particularly 12a PREVIOUS.
Favourite today 25a NEW DELHI.
This was so much fun from Rosa Klebb and certainly up to her usual high standard.
I agree, Pete, NIGHT-BIRDS was one of the cutest Spoonerisms I’ve seen. I liked PREVIOUS for the definition, NEEDLESS and STACCATO had great surfaces while DOUBLE ACT and DORMOUSE rounded out my top picks.
Cheers to Rosa and I look forward already to her next appearance.
Thanks, Pete, for a sterling blog.
Just a small typo in 2d; it is ‘run’ (tear) not ‘rut’ to give ‘nurseling’.
Thanks Rosa for another gem. My top picks were XERXES, ROSE GARDEN, STEVIA, OUT OF IT, NEEDLES, STACCATO, and ALAS. I wish Rosa Klebb had a weekly, not monthly, appearance but I’m grateful for what we have. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Well, what can I say? Rosa Klebb is one of my favourite setters and she delivered again.
Pretty well all clues had great surfaces, and there were some challenging ones too. I could have ticked 80% of the puzzle The sort of puzzle I love. A few too many of obscurities was the one quibble.
Like Pete, I got stuck for a while in the NE corner, and solving HEXAPOD started to open it up, but i then needed even more time given the two jorums (NURSELING and STEVIA).
I could not parse HENCHMAN as I did not know “muscular” = HENCH (nor does my dictionary)
Thanks Rosa and Pete
Got HONEST straight away but then found as I went through the clues that I got all the right hand side but none of the left.
Took a while but once I got HEXAPOD and NOBBLED (both made me smile) I made progress and managed to finish.
Lots of great clues including: NEEDLES, SNATCH, SHUFTI (lovely word), PREVIOUS (brilliant definition)
And as always with this setter lots of AHA moments and sheer wonder at the neatness of the clues.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Martyn @5: I hadn’t heard of ‘hench’ either. I entered the word in onelook.com and there it was, in the Cambridge English dictionary among others.
Thanks for the blog , great set of clues and so enjoyable and so many nice misleading touches that appear so naturally .
XERXES (runs off) , PASSION (peg out) ….. many more .
STEVIA was new to me but the clue was very fair .
Tony@7. I do not know one look.com, but it appears to be a great tool. Thanks for the tip.
Rosa Klebb on top form, yet again. She always manages to choose just the right word as indicator to make her surfaces sing. ‘Hench’ new to this solver as well and it’s surprising to find some dictionaries omitting it. So many to enjoy but XERXES my out-and-out favourite
Thanks both
Great fun. I started from the bottom, and once I had DORMOUSE was hoping for a Lewis Carroll theme. ALAS it was not to be.
The only one I couldn’t parse was PASSION. In my rural domestic life, “peg out” means hang the laundry! It didn’t help that I was sitting in the garden in view of the rotary Brabantia.
Loved this one and managed it (with help) except for STEVIA which I have never heard of. Favourites: New Delhi, Xerxes ,Night Birds.
Since circa 1990, hench widely used in UK and Oz, according to Google AI. New one on this Aussie, but I don’t get out much lately. Nice Monday job, ta V and P.
Terrific puzzle. And thanks for the blog.
Hench isn’t in my Chambers (12th edition, 2011). My son and his friends were using it, oh maybe 10-12 years ago to describe someone of muscular build. “Their scrum half was hench” etc
Presumably slang coined from henchman.
Agree with Grant and Andrew , the yoof have said HENCH for a while including our sprogs , I suspect it is just back formation from henchman , which is in my Chambers93 .
Thanks Rosa and Pete
6dn: I could not find hench in Chambers 2016, but it is in Collins 2023. The entry (on p 913) reads “adj Brit informal fit and having well-developed muscles [C21: perhaps from HENCHMAN]”.
I remain wary of online platforms, which are prone to picking up unjustified claims and reporting them as if they are established fact. It is of course a different matter if an online platforms points you to a respectable source as justification for a statement reported.
I totally concur with the comments from Diane @2, Tony Santucci @4 and Martyn @5 (first half) – which appears to leave me with nothing to say, late as I am.
Just to add that I always go back over Rosa’s puzzles, post-solve, to savour the exquisitely smooth and apposite surfaces and chortle again at the wicked wit. With most setters, I wince when I see ‘Spooner’ and I thank Goodness for Rosa, who understands them and knows how to do them properly.
Martyn @9 – I heartily endorse Tony’s recommendation of OneLook: I’ve used it for years, exclusively, I think.
Huge thanks, as ever, to Rosa and lucky Pete – and to everyone else: I’ve really enjoyed reading the whole blog today.
I fell for the misdirection in 3d and thought it was a cryptic reference to an in SPECIE transfer and so my first DNF in a long while.
Super stuff from Rosa! All the good clues have been already mentioned. Regarding Stevia, it’s the stuff Lydia mixed with her tea in Breaking Bad.
Having ‘a record’ would be having ‘previous’. Record on its own isn’t previous.
A trainspotters isn’t a nerd. Trainspotting involves collecting data, not applying that data.
A trainspotter isn’t a nerd. Trainspotting involves collecting data, not applying that data.
Again, late to the party but really liked the inclusion of ‘previous’ and also ‘hench’ which made me feel down with the yoof. But then also knowing ‘shufti’ dated me immediately. Thanks, Rosa, for a sparkling puzzle.
12ac: Chambers 2016 has the following:
p 1231 previous n (police inf) previous convictions.
p 1303 record n a list of a person’s criminal convictions.
I do not think it requires excessive generosity of spirit to allow either of these two words to define the other.
19ac: Collins 2023 p 2092 has
trainspotter n Brit 2 informal someone who is considered odd or boring because he or she is interested in knowing everything about a particular subject, even very small, unimportant details.
That seems to me to be a good fit to the definitions on p 1325 for nerd or nurd n slang 1 an unpopular or boring person, esp one lacking social skills 2 someone obsessed with something specified: a computer nerd.