I didn’t time myself for this as I was listening to England’s heroics in India at the same time, so probably not giving it quite the usual attention. It seemed the usual Phi thing, fairly straightforward but with some very good clues. 4dn took me a long time, as did 20ac. Eventually I had to cheat electronically with these.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ELECTRIC HARE — (c{hased} article here)*, an & lit. that seems a bit of a stretch but just about works, I think |
| 10 | LAT{e} IN — although the ‘not quite dead’ may well apply to Latin, the def is ‘language’ |
| 11 | FRAUDSTER — (Darfur set)* |
| 12 | THAW — ‘what’ with its sides swapped |
| 13 | LE F(TWINGE)R |
| 15 | M(I’D PO)INT |
| 16 | S{printer} CRAWL |
| 19 | D WEE B{os}S |
| 20 | CLERIHEW — clew round (hire)rev. — ‘clew’ is an archaic variant of ‘clue’, according to the COD. This took me a long time, for two reasons: ‘clerihew’ isn’t listed under ‘verse’ in Chambers Crossword Dictionary, and, having the h, I was trying to fit ‘Che’ in. |
| 22 | CHER RY(RIP)E — Robert Herrick wrote the words to this folk song |
| 23 | FLEA — (a elf)rev. |
| 25 | LOGORRHEA — (Al Gore or {Bus}h)* |
| 26 | MA(UV)E |
| 27 | CODE-BREAKING — (backed region)* |
| Down | |
| 2 | {f}LANK — is ‘drooping’ the same as ‘long, limp and straight’, or alternatively ‘lanky’? (COD) |
| 3 | CAFFEINE — (in effec{t})* around a |
| 4 | RIALTO — (liar)rev. to |
| 5 | CADDIE CART — cad (I’d)rev. (trace)rev. — I can’t find this in either Collins or the COD, although it is in Chambers |
| 6 | AUTOGRAPH ALBUM — CD |
| 7 | ER R OR |
| 8 | I LL TI(M)ED |
| 9 | STRADDLE-LEGGED — (all gets dredged)* |
| 14 | ROBBER CRAB — (a BBC error)* b |
| 17 | LAWMAKER — la(w)m (rake)* — for a while I wondered if I’d missed out on the up-and-coming Labour politician Lamwaker |
| 18 | FLAP JACK |
| 21 | ARCHI{v}E |
| 22 | COL IC{e} |
| 24 | {w}OMEN |
This was a much tougher puzzle than usual from Phi, I thought. Admittedly, it was because some of the words were unfamiliar to me personally. I thought the anagrams for ELECTRIC HARE and CODE-BREAKING were very well concealed.
I struggled with 1A thinking it must be ELECTRIC BLUE for a while (“Hint” indicating a colour). I didn’t twig the &lit aspect until I came here. I also had to cheat on CLERIHEW having made the same kneejerk reaction as you when I saw the word “revolutionary”.
A good but tough puzzle. I got held up for quite some time having thought that the answer to 24 down was “ides”, which seemed right if one reads “wides” for “broads”. I wonder if anyone else had the same experience.