Puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 3, 2026
My first-in was 12 (FETA) and I quickly solved the right half. The left was more challenging. My favourites are 18 (STARDOM) and 23 (HARRY). And I note that, as usual with Zamorca, this is a pangram. My thanks to BC for discussion over 18 and other assistance.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BEDSPREAD |
Fix advance cover for retirement (9)
|
| BED (fix) + ADVANCE (spread). ‘Bed’ can mean to fix or place firmly. | ||
| 6 | RECAP |
Summary of page one returned after reading (5)
|
| REC (reading) + P (page) A (one) backwards (returned) \-or- R (reading) + P (page) and ACE (one) backwards (returned). I am sticking with my original parsing (the first one here) while acknowledging that the second could work. | ||
| 9 | WORST |
Defeat controversy over holy woman (5)
|
| ROW (controversy) backwards (over) + ST (holy woman) | ||
| 10 | BEST OF ALL |
Energy inspiring sport of softball is beyond compare (4,2,3)
|
| E (energy) in (inspiring) anagram (sport of) of SOFTBALL | ||
| 11 | DID ONES BIT |
Contributed to doing bedsit renovation with girl absent (3,4,3)
|
| Anagram (renovation) of DOIN[g] BEDSIT | ||
| 12 | FETA |
Greek cheese comes with fine taramasalata on vacation (4)
|
| F[in]E T.[aramasalat]A | ||
| 14 | SEVENTY |
Initially virus aboard affected teensy number (7)
|
| V[irus] in (aboard) anagram (affected) of TEENSY | ||
| 15 | EXECUTE |
Realise old financial district’s united by the banks (7)
|
| EX (old) + EC (financial district, of London that is) + U (united) +T[h}E | ||
| 17 | UNLOCKS |
Frees King seized by revolutionary consul (7)
|
| K (king) in (seized by) anagram (revolutionary) of CONSUL | ||
| 19 | DEFACED |
Damaged online reputation within days? (7)
|
| E-FACE (online reputation) in (within) D and D (days) | ||
| 20 | ELAN |
Extraordinary spirit found in Ireland (4)
|
| Hidden word (found in) | ||
| 22 | PAYING CASH |
Always entering code’s good and remains first of choices before using actual money (6,4)
|
| AY (always) in (entering) PIN (code) + G (good) + C[hoices] + ASH (remains), (Corrected) | ||
| 25 | IGUANODON |
Dinosaur Institute professor’s collecting faeces (9)
|
| I (institute) + GUANO (faeces) + DON (professor) | ||
| 26 | TIGER |
Soldiers deserting regiment roused predator (5)
|
| REGI[men] T backwards (roused?) | ||
| 27 | GEE UP |
Encourage nerd dropping behind at university (3,2)
|
| GEE[k] (nerd dropping behind) + UP (at university). This was a new term for me. | ||
| 28 | MODERN-DAY |
Contemporary way of working with a Dryden composition (6-3)
|
| MO (way of working) + anagram (composition) of A DRYDEN | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BOWED |
Conceded brother was in debt (5)
|
| B (brother) + OWED was in debt) | ||
| 2 | DAREDEVIL |
American lawyer reviled frenzy to see desperado (9)
|
| DA (American lawyer) + anagram (frenzy) of REVILED | ||
| 3 | PUT ON AN ACT |
Without Community Centre can’t panto cast make a show? (3,2,2,3)
|
| [comm]U[nity] in (without) anagram (cast) of CANT PANTO | ||
| 4 | EMBASSY |
English writer’s adopting low voice in His Excellency’s residence (7)
|
| E (English) + BASS (low voice) in (adopting) MY (writer’s) | ||
| 5 | DISLIKE |
Kids lie about lack of fondness (7)
|
| Anagram (about) of KIDS LIE | ||
| 6 | ROOK |
Report of brawl in the North with man on board (4)
|
| Homophone (report of) “ruck” (brawl in the North) with the definition referring to chess | ||
| 7 | CEASE |
Wind up where the batter stands when run out (5)
|
| C[r]EASE (where the batter stands when run out) | ||
| 8 | PULL AHEAD |
Gain ground on bend and pound in lap running with leader (4,5)
|
| U (bend) + L (pound) together in (in) anagram (running) of LAP + HEAD (leader) | ||
| 13 | JET FIGHTER |
Tornado perhaps in Spring over there mostly ruined fruit (3,7)
|
| JET (spring) + FIG (fruit) + anagram (ruined) of THE[r] | ||
| 14 | SQUEEZING |
Pressing duties finally reduced monarch’s vigour (9)
|
| [dutie]S + QUEE[n] + ZING (vigour) | ||
| 16 | UNCHANGED |
Same children fished not long after verging on urbanisation (9)
|
| U[rbanisatio]N + CH (children) + ANG[l]ED (fish not long) | ||
| 18 | STARDOM |
Ascendant Traitors gets central broadcast award (7)
|
| RATS (traitors) backwards (ascendant) + [broa]D[cast] + OM (award) and an &Lit.? A semi-&Lit.? This refers to “The Traitors”, an award-winning television series in the UK, but I am uncertain of what the definition is supposed to be. | ||
| 19 | DEIGNED |
Saw fit to act over contaminated gin (7)
|
| Anagram (contaminated) of GIN in (over) DEED (act) | ||
| 21 | AMUSE |
Presumably showing rising interest (5)
|
| Reverse (rising) hidden (showing) word | ||
| 23 | HARRY |
Plague in Sussex? (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | SNIP |
Small dram’s a bargain (4)
|
| S (small) + NIP (dram) |
Good blog. I don’t really see a definition in 18D. Is it supposed to be clue-as-definition/semi-&lit? “Ascendant” is the reversal indicator, so should not also be the definition. This seemed a bit tougher than usual for a Zamorca.
I agree with Cineraria on all counts
I struggled with this, particularly the right hand side (opposite of Pete). I get the feeling that the setter struggled too. No ticks today.
Thanks Zamorca, and thanks Pete for a great blog.
Thanks Zamorca. I found this fairly straightforward & I enjoyed clues like UNLOCKS, IGUANODON, TIGER, and SQUEEZING. A couple of nits: I didn’t think ‘gain ground on’ accurately means PULL AHEAD & I was a bit surprised at the clunkiness of the surface for PAYING CASH. (Generally Zamorca has very clear & concise surfaces.) I did note the signature pangram. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , pretty good overall with some tricky wordplay , TIGER was very neat .
PULL AHEAD , like Tony@3 I think of gain ground on as catching up , but I suppose that if you are in the lead and gain ground on , then you pull ahead .
GEE UP commonly used when riding .
RECAP – I had P ACE(one) returning after R . In the UK we have the three Rs , reading riting rithmatic .
Parsed RECAP as Roz.
14a blog has ‘effected’ but should be ‘affected’.
22a had PIN (code) + G (good).
Couldn’t quite see how 13d worked to give ‘fig’ as an inclusion. The ‘over’ seems to be in the wrong place for that (at least for me).
All solved without too much difficulty, but we parsed 6ac as Roz and Hovis, and agree with Hovis about 13dn – in fact there doesn’t seem to be an inclusion indicator at all, with ‘over’ just indicating that ‘jet’ comes first.
Thanks, Zamorca and Pete.
Thank you all for the comments and corrections. I remain unconvinced about 6a and am still wondering about 18.
Thanks Zamorca and Pete
6ac: I thought of it as R + (P + ACE reversed) when solving, but I do not like “reading” = “one of the three Rs” = R without an indicator of definition by example. Given that Chambers 2016 p 1300 has rec. abbrev record, I think it is less of a stretch to rake record = reading, and parse as REC + (P + A reversed).
13dn: In a down clue, a wordplay reading simply “over Y Z” has an implied comma after the Y and definitely indicates Z + Y in that order. Therefore a wordplay “X over Y Z” can mean X + Z + Y. Here X is Spring = JET, Y is “there mostly ruined” = THER* = HTER, and Z is fruit = FIG, to give us JET + FIG + HTER as in Pete’s blog.
I see what you mean PB, re 13d. Reading it again, I see it now. I still prefer R + (P + ACE)< and feel record = reading is a little more of a stretch than R = reading. To each his/her own.
Just noticed a minor error in blog for 13d. Should have THER(e), not THE(r).
I forgot to say last time that I agree with Hovis @5 about PIN + G taken separately in 22ac. Similarly in 19ac, I took E + FACE in two parts,
8dn. SOED 2007 p 1066 has “gain ground on, gain ground upon make progress at the expense of; get closer to (someone or something pursued)”. However, it has gain ground on its own with meanings including “advance, acquire ascendancy”. Collins 2023 p 797 similarly has “gain ground to make progress or obtain an advantage”. Chambers 2016 p 622 has “gain ground to grow in influence, become more widely accepted”, which is less helpful, but it does have “gain on or upon to get closer to, catch up on; to overtake by degrees; to increase one’s advantage against”. All in all, I think there is dictionary support for “gain ground” as a valid definition of PULL AHEAD, leaving “on” as a link word.
Pelham Barton @#10: Thanks for the discussion about ‘gain ground’ and ‘gain ground on’. If ‘on’ is a link word it’s a dubious one. ‘Definition on wordplay’ doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Tony@11: I take your point, but I would say that “on” in 8dn is not the only dubious link word in this puzzle. In 11ac, the answer is an intransitive word phrase, so the word “to” does not really belong in the definition. We can go on to 23dn, where I think the second definition is just “Sussex?”, a reference to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. I cannot make the word “in” belong to either definition. As always, I am prepared to be corrected with a suitable explanation or reference.
Thank you, Hovis. I have corrected 22a.
In 19 d (DEIGNED) it seemed to me that the word “to” was superfluous. I don’t think it is part of the definition and nor apparently does Pete Maclean.
The puzzle was a case of steady, but fairly slow, progress for me this weekend, but at least I got it finished.
I have learned from long experience that I am poor at noticing and judging such matters. However in this case I think Babbler may well be right about 19d.