Pete is on holiday and I’m stepping in for him this week. I last blogged an FT in around 2008, but this was very pleasant, nice surfaces and although at times the answer didn’t come immediately it did eventually. Perhaps one could criticise Rosa for having so many clues where letters have to be omitted but this is minor I think.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RUM BABA |
Sweet dance with bachelor (3,4)
|
| rumba BA | ||
| 5 | POPEDOM |
Report revolutionary system in Leo’s office (7)
|
| pop (mode)rev. — pop = report, mode = system — ref the present Pope, Leo XIV | ||
| 9 | BIGHT |
Sound from great height (5)
|
| big ht. — the geographical feature | ||
| 10 | ASPIRATED |
Perhaps made it into hit parade — it’s fantastic! (9)
|
| (parade its)* — a very clever definition that had me flummoxed for a while, and it was only when the checkers made the answer more or less obvious that I worked out how it was | ||
| 11 | THE ARCHER |
Stars in interminable BBC soap (3,6)
|
| The Archer[s] — a constellation — the use of a radio soap gave some trouble since TV soaps didn’t of course work — interminable indeed: it’s been going since 1951, although here it indicates the dropping of the final letter | ||
| 12 | PARSE |
Released from trap, old men verbally break down (5)
|
| “pa’s” — ‘Released from trap’ is the homophone indicator | ||
| 13 | CLING |
Caught fish? Hold on tight! (5)
|
| c ling | ||
| 15 | DYNASTIES |
Powerful families of decidedly vacuous, unpleasant people (9)
|
| d[ecidedl]y nasties — nasties = unpleasant people | ||
| 18 | HAMADRYAS |
Noah’s son with a thirsty and extremely audacious baboon (9)
|
| Ham a dry a[udaciou]s — never heard of it, although it’s there in Collins (not quite in Chambers) — Ham was Noah’s son, dry = thirsty | ||
| 19 | ULCER |
Public fears oddly invisible threat to health (5)
|
| [P]u[b]l[i]c [f]e[a]r[s] — I don’t understand why a setter is allowed to use ‘oddly’ but not ‘evenly’: the setter has to find a circumlocution, which works fine here | ||
| 21 | RIFLE |
Shooter in Moroccan mountains with the French (5)
|
| Rif le — the Rif are the (unheard-of) Moroccan mountains and ‘le’ = ‘the’ in French | ||
| 23 | BRAKE SHOE |
It helps you stop, pause and drive away as stated (5,4)
|
| “break shoo” — break = pause, shoo = drive away | ||
| 25 | LOITERING |
Angry lion and tiger mooching about (9)
|
| *(lion tiger) | ||
| 26 | GROPE |
Fondle backside of good-looking guy? (5)
|
| [good-lookin]g rope | ||
| 27 | DOTARDS |
Toads jumping across road confused old folk (7)
|
| (toads)* round rd | ||
| 28 | ARTISAN |
Crafty sort of guerrilla hiding face (7)
|
| [p]artisan | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ROBOTIC |
Back in Montecito, bored stiff (7)
|
| Hidden reversed in MonteCITO BORed | ||
| 2 | MAGNESIUM |
Element of broadcast amusing me (9)
|
| *(amusing me) | ||
| 3 | ASTIR |
Bubbly roommate’s first out of bed (5)
|
| Asti r[oommate] — nicely misleading: for quite a while I was thinking ‘bubbly’ was the definition; this was my last one in | ||
| 4 | ABASHEDLY |
Army’s leader thumped half-cut ally with embarrassment (9)
|
| A[rmy] bashed [al]ly — bashed = thumped | ||
| 5 | PAPER |
Upset about drivel in essay (5)
|
| (re pap)rev. — re = about, pap = drivel | ||
| 6 | PARI PASSU |
Secretaries in City University, side by side (4,5)
|
| PAs in (Paris) U — this Latin phrase was something I was a bit vague about despite its appearing in The Times the other day, and I had to look it up: Chambers does indeed give ‘together’ | ||
| 7 | DETER |
Prevent cleaner scrubbing chap (5)
|
| deter[gent] — gent = chap | ||
| 8 | MADNESS |
Card index regularly covered by manuscripts in chaos (7)
|
| [C]a[r]d [i]n[d]e[x] in MSS — MSS is the plural of MS, manuscript | ||
| 14 | GADGETEER |
Excitedly greet aged technophile (9)
|
| *(greet aged) | ||
| 16 | NOSTALGIA |
Sat in gaol, suffering homesickness (9)
|
| (Sat in gaol)* — I didn’t think nostalgia and homesickness were quite the same, but Collins says they are, at least in one sense | ||
| 17 | IN CAHOOTS |
Intriguing old American jokers (2,7)
|
| Inca hoots — Inca = old American, hoots = jokers | ||
| 18 | HURTLED |
Shot and injured, left with journalist (7)
|
| hurt L ed. — hurt = injured, L = left, ed. = journalist (editor) | ||
| 20 | ROEDEAN |
Eggs on clergyman in girls’ school (7)
|
| roe dean — roe = eggs, dean = clergyman — Roedean is a girls’ school in Sussex | ||
| 22 | FAINT |
Female isn’t commonly feeble (5)
|
| f ain’t — f = female, ain’t = isn’t (commonly) | ||
| 23 | BLISS |
Topless snog behind British Library is heaven (5)
|
| BL [k]iss — BL = British Library, kiss = snog | ||
| 24 | ERGOT |
Fungus thus beginning to thrive (5)
|
| ergo t[hrive], ergo = thus |
Found this a bit trickier than usual for a Rosa Klebb puzzle but as always very enjoyable.
Favourites were: HAMADRYAS (also never heard of it), ARTISAN, ASTIR, DETER, ROEDEAN
Thanks Rosa Klebb and John
I lost my notes unfortunately, but I can say without any reminders that I enjoyed this tremendously, as almost every clue had a wonderful surface. A true lesson in how to set a crossword.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and John
Thanks Rosa Klebb and John.
My faves: ASPIRATED, DYNASTIES, BRAKE SHOE, NOSTALGIA and FAINT.
Thanks Rosa for the ongoing excellence in setting crosswords with my top picks this time being RUM BABA, GROPE, DOTARDS, ASTIR, and PAPER. Thanks John for the blog.
Thanks for stepping in with the blog , very enjoyable with many clever and neat clues , ASPIRATED the prime example .
Two minor quibbles , sound=BIGHT , not really , Chambers is no help here and probably okay for a crossword .
Stars= THE ARCHER , very weak definition , it is like defining a novel or play by “words” . In the North we call it The Teapot , even has a plume of steam .
[11ac gave me a wave of 16d for a radio serial on Oz Auntie called Blue Hills. Though it did eventually terminate, it was at one time the longest-running in the world]
[Roz @5: Enjoyed your ‘soundbite’ about a ‘sound’ not really being the same as a ‘bight’. 😄 ]
Another classy offering from Rosa and a nicely succinct blog. Thanks both.
Aspirated, loitering, magnesium, and deter stood out for me.
[ Tony@7 you have a possible clue in your idea . Time for my swim in Morecambe Bight ]
Thanks Rosa and John
9ac: Having looked through the usual dictionaries, I cannot find definitions for bight and sound which have sufficient overlap. The best I can find is in the Collins online synonym list, which includes sound as a synonym of bight in the sense of “bay”.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-thesaurus/bight#bight__1, accessed 16 February 2026
However, this needs to be read alongside the definition of synonym as “a word that means the same or nearly the same as another word, such as bucket and pail” (Collins online or Collins 2023 p 2006). I think bight and sound must be regarded as meaning “nearly the same” here. Is that near enough? Decide for yourself.
Thanks RK and John
I did wonder if there was some sly humour going on in 9, as if you put definition and solution together you get SOUND BIGHT.
Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle and helpful blog. I got stuck in NE corner, having never heard of pari passu and came here last night looking for the solution. In the end I was glad it wasn’t up yet as I managed to get it after much googling and then the few remaining words went in quickly, with PARSE (perhaps ironically) my LOI.