0:00
Across
Down
Opening puzzle…
Windy Asha Kapoor · Saturday, 31 January 2026 · Ahhhh!
January 2026
Saturday,
31 January 2026
0:00
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
Across
1.
Mr Fox's adjective, and the Four's; also how the review reads when the popcorn was good (9)
6.
Naan, sourdough, and the slang that means money (5)
7.
Golf clubs that are not woods; also what the dhobi swings on a Sunday (5)
8.
Article that goes before hour and umbrella but refuses to go before year (2)
9.
Tense that holds the spice opera and all your unread tabs (6)
14.
Two letters that end a Slack thread and begin every Oklahoma postcode (2)
15.
Skip's neighbour in the playground, or the beer's bitter half (3)
16.
Parliamentary no that sounds like a horse's opinion (3)
17.
Hans whose sandworm score is mostly a subwoofer test you feel in your teeth (6)
20.
What the grapes become, and the real reason the book club meets (4)
21.
Rise like the eagle, or like the tomato price in July (4)
22.
Redding who sat on the dock, or the brass plate inside every lift (4)
23.
Iain M. of the Culture novels; also where rivers and salaries both pile high (5)
24.
Sand with ambition; also the doorstop novel that finally got the film it deserved (4)
26.
Pirate's affirmative, or the front half of Bart Simpson's caramba (2)
28.
What a shirt has two of, and what you do to the alarm (3)
29.
Jog's older sibling; also what the code does right after it compiles (3)
32.
The one thing the sand planet is out of; also the rapper Cube's first name (3)
33.
Possessive in the Knack's Sharona, and the word right after oh (2)
34.
House whose Duke accepts a desert governorship that is obviously a trap (8)
Down
1.
Mulder's employer; also who the caps-lock email claims to be from (3)
2.
Planet with a spice problem, a worm problem, and no umbrellas (7)
3.
Gas that spells OPEN in pink at 2 a.m. (4)
4.
What the beach gives you in eleven minutes; also a ratio in trigonometry (3)
5.
What the free tier makes you sit through before the song (3)
9.
In favour of; also the golfer's shout minus its last letter (3)
10.
Where the balloon goes, and where the Pixar house went (2)
11.
What the physics teacher circled in red because you forgot them (5)
12.
Queen in Jaipur; also the Mukerji of Bollywood (4)
13.
What the spice turns blue on blue; also what the umpire needs two good ones of (4)
14.
Dorothy's destination, or Australia when you are texting (2)
15.
Frank who went to Oregon to write about shifting sand and came back with a whole planet (7)
18.
Short moment, or Salah's first name on the back of a Liverpool shirt (2)
19.
Mum in the Bronx, or Massachusetts on the envelope (2)
20.
Pan that needs a flame the size of a small sun (3)
24.
How the wit is, how the martini is, and how the towel never is in monsoon (3)
25.
Filler word while you remember the answer (2)
26.
Serve nobody touches; also the card that is both one and eleven (3)
27.
The word every rickshaw driver says before checking the address (3)
28.
Before noon, briefly; also what follows I on a Descartes T-shirt (2)
30.
Sumerian city, or the whole of your hesitation in a text (2)
31.
Nebraska, to the postman; or born as, to the wedding card (2)
32.
What the bouncer wants, or what Freud said wants everything (2)