Independent 7,723/Phi

by

A nice end to the week from Phi. Started this as I got on the bus to work, and finished just before I needed to get off. Perfect.

Across
1 SUPERCHARGED – PERCH + A in SURGED
8 ELITISM – IT IS in ELM
9 ARCHAIC – ARCH + 1 in A/C
11 TIGHTEN – TIG + (THEN)*
12 TWO DEEP – (TOP WEED)*
13 FLEER – F,LEER
14 RACONTEUR – R + (ON CURATE)*
16 EFFICIENT – F[-unds] in [-d]EFICIENT
19 SLANG – N in GALS rev.
21 TARRIES – A R in TRIES
23 LOCKOUT – LOCK,OUT
24 EXAMPLE – EX,AMPLE
25 MANSION – IS rev. in MANON
26 COME DOWN WITH – WIT + H[-ugging} on COMEDOWN
Down
1 SHINGLE – [-sout]H in SINGLE
2 PAINTER – A in (Harold) PINTER
3 ROMANY RYE – ANY RY in (MORE)*
4 HEART – Double def.
5 RACCOON – C[-opse] + COO in RAN
6 ETAGERE – AGE in ETRE (French for ‘to be’)
7 LEFT-OF-CENTRE – LEFT OF[-f] + (RECENT)*
10 COPYRIGHTING – P in COY + “writing”
15 CATTLEMAN – CAT + (MENTAL)*
17 FARRAGO – RAG in FARO
18 CRIPPLE – C,RIPPLE
19 SECONDI – The last anwer I got, and a very clever clue, the finale of Rossini being the 2nd I
20 ABOLISH – LO (Long Island) in A BISH
22 SEE TO – TEES rev. + 0

6 comments on “Independent 7,723/Phi”

  3. Got a bit bored doing this one, seemed to feel like we were being steered along in territory we already knew. Which was odd. Almost laughed at 15 down, but not quite. We reckon this one could’ve done with a device or two to spice it up, since the wit was lacking.

  4. Excellent puzzle from Phi, as always. On the easy side, agreed. Speaking of sides, there’s a little connection I think between the four perimeter entries (in a positional sense).

  6. On 20D, “a lot of nonsense” is a bosh, which contains LI, the abbreviation for Long Island.

    John M

Comments are closed.