Solving time : 30 minutes.
In many ways a typical Phi puzzle, very fair. The clues that marred this puzzle for me were a couple of cryptic definitions that I didn’t feel worked that well, or perhaps didn’t understand.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | M(OT+HEAT)EN — this one was next to last for me despite having all the checking letters. Biblical text, or books, usually suggests OT or NT. |
| 10 | A+OR+TA — the definition here was just an artery, rather than a road. |
| 11 | A(PRO)N — another easy clue but that still didn’t stop me writing in Arran and convincing myself it was a protective sweater! |
| 12 | LITIG(IO)US — anag GUILT IS, the definition here seems slightly off mark and a little verbose. |
| 17 | LET THEM EAT CAKE — the cryptic definition here isn’t much more than a straight definition for me. |
| 21 | SAFE(TYNE)T — anag FEATS, nice to see the Tyne used in word play. |
| 26 | FLY+PART(rev) — is a PART a crafty component particularly? |
| 27 | DE+SERVE(r) — having spent the morning programming CORBA servers it threw me that server was being used to mean hardware. Of French could also be DU or DES in other contexts. |
| Down | |
| 2 | NAT(UR)AL — is there an old city other than UR? |
| 3 | GREENWICH — cryptic definition, Greenwich defines the zero point of the longitude system. |
| 4 | LITTLE WO(ME)N — ME is often clued as the writer, setter or compiler. |
| 7 | MAR+CON+I — After spoil leading to PAMPER (see Times for the Times) it returns to normal today and means MAR. |
| 8 | ROAD SIGN — anag (c)ARS DOING nice surface, though turns might be seen as a weak anagram indicator. |
| 13 | THE LAST WORD — is there more to this than a cryptic definition? |
| 16 | B(LAST)OFF(in) — when a BOFFIN is not at home he or she’s not IN. |
| 15 | TEC+TONICS — my last answer despite its straighforwardness. I convinced myself that TECHTONICS was the right spelling and thus the wrong answer! |
| 20 | DEC+RE+E — the last month of the year rather than last month (OCT). |
| 22 | THE+IR — The Inland Revenue, though I believe they may now have a new name. |
Re 13, CAP is THE LAST WORD in the puzzle. “In this case, cap”. This puzzle was easy for me, 11 mins.
5:50 for me – pretty normal for Phi. 26A: You need “crafty” to get the FLY in the answer, so “part” is just “component”. Other old cities: Thebes gets used occasionally. “Last month”: can be the old commercial correspondence “ult(imo)” too. Got 15 without understanding the wordplay – I’d say getting TONICS from “boosts” was quite difficult.
Thanks about CAP, I knew I was missing something with that one.
Apologies for the misrepresentation of FLYTRAP. My excuse is that I penned in FLY once I had the F and the Y. I then read that as insect in the wordplay and considered that the answer was a component, re FLYWHEEL. Nothing came to mind but once I had the other down answers I filled in TRAP, saw that it fitted the definition but failed to reinterpret the word play fully!