A mercifully gentle end to a tough week. There were one or two answers I wasn’t immediately sure about, but solid clueing as always from Phi.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SACK – Straight DD to get us going | |
| 3 | ABUTMENT – BUT,MEN in A,T | |
| 10 | THE CHOSEN PEOPLE – Ref. the Israelites (Bible, 1 Chronicles 6,13 apparently) | |
| 11 | SKEWWHIFF – S,KEW,WHIFF – Here we go again! Phi’s dealt with this much in the same way as Scorpion did last week. And, yes, it’s one word with no hyphen in Collins 2003! | |
| 12 | NARK – N,ARK – Spent far too long assuming ‘navy’ would be RN here | |
| 13 | DEFENCE – FEN,C in DEE – Great clue | |
| 17 | ARREST – A,R,REST | |
| 20 | ACTS – [-p]ACTS | |
| 21 | ODALISQUE – DALIS,QU in O,E – Not a familiar word for me, but perfectly clued. An odalisque is a female slave in a harem | |
| 24 | THE BACK OF BEYOND – ND being the back of [BEYO]ND and the state code (or whatever you call it) for North Dakota | |
| 25 | HITHERTO – HIT + T in HERO | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SET ASIDE – (SEATS)* + IDE[-a] | |
| 2 | CREWE – CREW,[-remot]E | |
| 5 | THE ENTERTAINER – ENTERTAIN in (THERE)* – Needed to Google this one to understand the reference – Archie Rice from John Osborne’s play | |
| 6 | EMPIRICAL – (CLAIM PIER)* | |
| 7 | TIER – TI[-g]ER | |
| 8 | THE WINTERS TALE – THE WINTER,STALE | |
| 9 | ASPIRE – ASPIR[-in],E | |
| 14 | FIRECREST – FIRE,C,REST – It wouldn’t be a Phi puzzle without a bird clue! | |
| 18 | TOOLKIT – TOO,[-dea]L,[-oa]K,IT | |
| 22 | QUOIT – O in QUIT | |
| 23 | ITCH – [-h]ITCH | |
Thanks for explaining 5down… I was thinking of the tune rather than the play, then struggling to find Conddoolleezzaa entertaining!
14 FIRECREST – FIRE,C,REST – It wouldn’t be a Phi puzzle without a bird clue!
Or a musical one (17ac).