Puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 28, 2026
Zamorca gives us another fine pangram. I found it to be an easy solve and I especially like 8 (COMPANY) and 10 (GODDESSES).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CHILLI |
Picked up cool yet hot stuff (6)
|
| Homophone (picked up) of “chilly” (cool). Not sure what ‘yet’ is doing here. | ||
| 4 | JOGGER |
Runner’s knocked back orange juice with scrambled egg before start of race (6)
|
| OJ (orange juice) backwards (knocked back) + anagram (scrambled) of EGG + R[ace] | ||
| 8 | COMPANY |
Proverbially no more than two actors? (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | BOROUGH |
Lad finally abandoned dodgy area of city (7)
|
| BO[y] (lad finally abandoned) + ROUGH (dodgy) | ||
| 11 | CHURCHGOER |
Briefly pitch copy about mysterious hero protecting good parishioner (10)
|
| HUR[l] (briefly pitch) in (about) CC (copy) + G (good) in (protecting) anagram (mysterious) of HERO | ||
| 12 | CZAR |
Some backed Alcaraz challenging leading Russian (4)
|
| Reverse (backed) hidden word (some) | ||
| 13 | HELLO |
Helium balloon centrepiece of good day (5)
|
| HE (helium) + [ba]LLO[on] | ||
| 14 | DICKY BOW |
Weak violin player’s part of a formal outfit (5,3)
|
| DICKY (weak) + BOW (violin player) | ||
| 16 | FIXTURES |
Arranges holding routine review for upcoming matches (8)
|
| RUT (routine) backwards (review) in (holding) FIXES (arranges) | ||
| 18 | MAPLE |
Designed lamp with last of fine wood (5)
|
| Anagram (designed) of LAMP + [fin]E | ||
| 20 | ABET |
Put money on American going ahead for help (4)
|
| A (American) + BET (put money on) | ||
| 21 | PRECARIOUS |
Uncertain before taking on vehicle debts? (10)
|
| PRE (before) + CAR (vehicle) + IOUS (debts) | ||
| 23 | QUERIED |
Doctor re-equipped junking PPE that’s disputed (7)
|
| Anagram (doctor) of RE EQUI[ppe]D | ||
| 24 | LIFT-OFF |
What happens at launch pad with elevator not working? (4-3)
|
| LIFT (elevator) + OFF (not working) | ||
| 25 | HIDDEN |
Stripped, shedding disguise unseen (6)
|
| Anagram (disguise) of [s]HEDDIN[g] | ||
| 26 | SECRET |
Underground cult infiltrated by soldiers (6)
|
| RE (soldiers, i.e. Royal Engineers) in (infiltrated by) SECT (cult) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CLOTH |
Charlie’s husband material (5)
|
| CLOT (charlie) + H (husband) | ||
| 2 | IMPERIL |
Endanger one long supporting prime moves (7)
|
| Anagram (moves) of PRIME + I (one) + L (long) | ||
| 3 | LUNCH HOUR |
Look around a French church, heading to historic old city for meal break (5,4)
|
| UN (a French) + CH (church) + H[istoric] together in (around) LO (look) + UR (old city) (corrected — I missed an ‘H’) | ||
| 5 | ODOUR |
Old, sour smell (5)
|
| O (old) + DOUR (sour) | ||
| 6 | GROUCHY |
King in the grip of awful cough finally really complaining (7)
|
| R (kind) in (in the grip of) anagram (awful) of COUGH + [reall]Y | ||
| 7 | RIGMAROLE |
Tackle master part in play making a big fuss (9)
|
| RIG (tackle) + MA (master) + ROLE (part in play) (corrected — I missed the ‘A’) | ||
| 10 | GODDESSES |
Party girl’s coming up with clothes right away for female deities (9)
|
| DO (party) + G (girl) together backwards (coming up) + D[r]ESSES (clothes right away) | ||
| 13 | HAIRBRUSH |
Quiet, look! Burglar’s banking on cutting tool for locks (9)
|
| AIR (look, as in for example ‘an air of mystery’) + B[urgla]R in (cutting) HUSH (quiet). I do not understand what role ‘on’ plays here. | ||
| 15 | COMBATIVE |
Belligerent mob active at sea (9)
|
| Anagram (at sea) of MOB ACTIVE | ||
| 17 | TUTORED |
Tour abroad after end of student education helped with learning (7)
|
| [studen]T + anagram (abroad) of TOUR + ED (education) | ||
| 19 | PAINTER |
Father’s shafted by home decorator (7)
|
| IN (home) in (shafted by) PATER (father) | ||
| 21 | PIECE |
Bit sanctimonious about blocking drugs (5)
|
| PI (sanctimonious) + E (drug) + C (about) + E (drug) | ||
| 22 | UNFIT |
Spoiled fun with sex being out of condition (5)
|
| Anagram (spolled) of FUN + IT (sex) |
Thanks Zamorca and Pete
3dn needs to be UN + CH + H together in LO + UR, the extra H coming from “heading to historic”.
7dn the master (of arts) is MA.
This was another enjoyable pangram from Zamorca and, as Pete says, on the gentler side. My picks were GROUCHY, MAPLE and JOGGER (‘runner’ not cluing ‘ski’ or ‘river’ for a change).
Thanks to Zamorca and Pete.
My faves: CHURCHGOER, FIXTURES, GROUCHY and HAIRBRUSH.
Thanks Zamorca and Pete.
Most enjoyable. For a fleeting moment we thought of ‘black tie’ for 14ac, but definition and crossers quickly made the correct answer obvious.
Thanks, Zamorca and Pete.
Thanks. This was pretty good. I liked RIGMAROLE, QUERIED and LIFT OFF among others.
Thanks for the blog , enjoyable set of clues , COMPANY is very neat .
For a change, I picked up on the pangram-to-be pretty early; this helped with my last one in, DICKY BOW. Not a phrase in American English. Usually I don’t see pangrams at all until someone on this site points them out.
Also, it’s time once again to wonder how it happened that the British added an extra L to that Tex-Mex staple CHILI when it crossed the Atlantic…
mrpenney@7: oed.com gives the various forms of chilli that are still in use as
chile (now chiefly U.S.), chilli dating from the 1600s
chili (now chiefly U.S.) dating from the 1700s