Puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 17, 2026
My first-in was 9 (NUMERAL) and I breezed through most of the puzzle. My favourites are 6 (IMPRECISE), 8 (CLARET), 11 (ARRAY) and 17 (WILD BOAR) for its great homophone indicator. My thanks to BC for help with 25 and to Leonidas.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COCKER SPANIEL |
Chicken pies left near poorly hound (6,7)
|
| COCK (chicken) + anagram (poorly) of PIES L NEAR (corrected) | ||
| 9 | NUMERAL |
Figure overturning part of spectacular emu nest (7)
|
| Reverse (overturning) hidden word (part of) | ||
| 10 | TOPSAIL |
What is rigged by rogue pilots controlling area (7)
|
| A (area) in (controlling) anagram (rogue) of PILOTS | ||
| 11 | ARRAY |
Display fish behind another that’s gutted (5)
|
| A[nothe]R + RAY (fish) | ||
| 12 | CARPENTER |
Complaint by key worker in wood (9)
|
| CARP (complaint) + ENTER (key) | ||
| 13 | REMOTEST |
Extra cycling trial possibly most difficult to get to (8)
|
| MORE (extra) shifted (cycling) + TEST (trial) | ||
| 15 | MISHIT |
Quiet one visiting US university getting poor service? (6)
|
| SH (quiet) + I (one) together in (visiting) MIT (US university) with the definition referring to sports | ||
| 18 | JINGLE |
Individual having Juliet covering son’s catchy tune (6)
|
| J (Juliet) + [s]INGLE (individual covering son) | ||
| 19 | DIVERGES |
Parts of boundary patrolled by detectives (8)
|
| VERGE (boundary) in (patrolled by) DIS (detectives) | ||
| 22 | THRESHOLD |
Diamonds on stole HRH lost in entrance (9)
|
| Anagram (lost) of D ON STOLE HRH | ||
| 24 | MAGMA |
Issue with relative’s ejection from Stromboli? (5)
|
| MAG (issue) + MA (relative) | ||
| 25 | AXOLOTL |
Group led by old German skinned large amphibian (7)
|
| [s]AXO[n] (old German skinned) + LOT (group) + L (large) | ||
| 26 | ODDBALL |
Strange and periodically sordid dance (7)
|
| [s]O[r]D[i]D + BALL (dance) | ||
| 27 | TREASURE-CHEST |
A certain child in forest maybe close to secret hoard? (8-5)
|
| A (a) + SURE (certain) + CH (child) in (in) TREES (forest) + [secre]T | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CENTAUR |
Church books right below gold cross (7)
|
| CE (church)+ NT (books) + AU (gold) + R (right) | ||
| 2 | CAMERAMEN |
Arrived with broth for those on a shoot (9)
|
| CAME (arrived) + RAMEN (broth) | ||
| 3 | EARLY |
Almost striking note before the agreed time (5)
|
| [n]EARLY (almost striking note) | ||
| 4 | SOLECISM |
One so upset over Mark’s blunder (8)
|
| SOLE (one) + SIC (so) backwards (upset) + M (mark) | ||
| 5 | ATTIRE |
A lot of room inside of grey clothes (6)
|
| ATTI[c] (a lot of room inside) + [g]RE[y] | ||
| 6 | IMPRECISE |
Setter’s recipes unfortunately not quite accurate (9)
|
| I’M (setter’s) + anagram (unfortunately) of RECIPES | ||
| 7 | LEAPT |
Did spring in meadow ultimately help harvest? (5)
|
| LEA (meadow) + [hel]P [harves]T | ||
| 8 | CLARET |
What can be played without wearing red (6)
|
| CLAR[in]ET (what can be played without “in”) | ||
| 14 | TELESCOPE |
Instrument the French officer covered with shirt (9)
|
| LES (the French) + COP (officer) in (covered with) TEE (shirt) | ||
| 16 | HIGH-GRADE |
Superior free gig heard around centre of Baghdad (4-5)
|
| [bag]H[dad] in (around) anagram (free) of GIG HEARD | ||
| 17 | WILD BOAR |
Tusked creature writer carried when released from trap (4,4)
|
| WILD (writer) + homophone (when release from trap) of “bore” (carried) | ||
| 18 | JETSAM |
Washed up items before noon at bottom of craft (6)
|
| JETS (craft) + AM (before noon) | ||
| 20 | SHALLOT |
Vegetable from pile perhaps taken by drunk (7)
|
| HALL (pile perhaps, referring to a building) in (taken by) SOT (drunk) | ||
| 21 | MOULTS |
Furry animal briefly circles lowermost empty sheds (6)
|
| L[owermos]T in (circles) MOUS[e] (furry animal briefly) | ||
| 23 | ROOST |
Two ducks on banks of Solent following river perch (5)
|
| R (river) + OO (two ducks) + S[olen]T | ||
| 24 | MEDIC |
Main island beginning to charm practitioner (5)
|
| MED (main) + I (island) + C[harm] |
It was a very enjoyable puzzle which, like Pete, I fairly breezed through. I came here to see the parsing of AXOLOTL and ATTIRE.
For 1a though, it is COCK (chicken) with an anagram of pies + L[eft]+ near.
I liked THRESHOLD, SHALLOT (with ‘pile’ cluing ‘hall’) and CENTAUR defined by ‘cross’.
Thanks both.
Thanks Leonidas and Pete
17dn: I had this as sounding like “Wilde bore”.
I had the opposite experience. I found this slow-going.
Liked CENTAUR
I finished with several clues unparsed and I felt a few others were loosely worded, meaning I no choice but to solve first then parse later
Please note that ramen is not broth – it is a type of noodle so 2d is not correct. And for 10, do you not rig the boat and not the sail?
Thanks Leonidas and PM
17d as per PB @2 and wondered about ramen as per Martyn @3. Nice puzzle, ta both.
Chambers says that ramen is a Japanese dish of clear broth containing vegetables, noodles and often pieces of meat.
17d. D’oh!
Thanks both
Thanks Hovis@5. The setter is justified in using broth I guess, but I am afraid Chambers is wrong.
Using broth is the most usual way of eating ramen (same goes for Udon and Soba), but it is also perfectly normal to eat any of the noodles (including ramen) with no broth. In Japanese one of the meanings of men is “noodle”. Ra just means “pulled”.
Solid puzzle as expected from this setter. I wasn’t aware of the fine distinction ref RAMEN so it worked fine for me. COCKER SPANIEL, REMOTEST, DIVERGES, CENTAUR, IMPRECISE, CLARET and SHALLOT my faves today.
Thanks both
All solved without help, but JINGLE and AXOLOTL went in unparsed from definitions.
Thanks, Leonidas and Pete.
Lovely puzzle. Found the top half went in quickly but the bottom half took a while.
Liked: CENTAUR, JINGLE, MISHIT, TELESCOPE, LEAPT
Thanks Leonidas and Pete
I wondered about RAMEN too.
I’m glad so many of you found this a “breeze”. But I found this challenging with parsing allowing for so many options that I want always sure. But in the end enjoyed the puzzle.
Thanks Leonidas and Pete
Thanks Leonidas for a great set of clues with ARRAY, TREASURE-CHEST, CENTAUR, CAMERAMAN, SOLECISM, and WILD BOAR among my favourites. Overall I thought this was more difficult than your usual fare and I eventually revealed MISHIT, AXOLOTL, and MOULTS. In 1a I thought ‘poorly’ made the surface a bit awkward; I thought ‘barking’ would be better. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Re 2d, I would have agreed with the comments that RAMEN is the noodle, Chambers notwithstanding, as I sometimes cook ramen dishes that aren’t broth. However, a favourite Montreal restaurant calls itself Ramen Nakamichi, and only serves ramen in broth with vegetables and sometimes meat. So both Leonidas and Chambers are off the hook.
Thanks L @ P for the fun.
As expected from Leonidas.
Regarding the ramen debate; pop in to any Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. supermarket and ask for ‘ramen’, what you will receive is a choice of between a dozen and a hundred differently flavoured dried products with not a drop of ‘broth’ in sight.
I found this extremely challenging, in fact I cheated on 25A it being a word I’ve never heard of.
We all have to do that at times.