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)
|
| RUT (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.