Pretty easy going at first. I had the grid (with the exception of the four thematics) filled in about an hour. The thematics, however, proved a little troublesome until the penny dropped.
The biggest problem with the thematics was that they had to be cold solved as the grid entry was to be encoded.
The first thematic I got was 10 (ILFRACOMBE.) After a lot of hunting around looking to see what’s special about Ilfracombe and coming up with nothing much (with apologies to Ilfracombe residents), I forced myself to start solving the other thematics. 31 looked like it wanted to start with OK, making a guess that we were probably looking for towns, I started a search for 10 letter towns beginning with OK. I could only find OKEHAMPTON. Aha, Ilfracombe and Okehampton are both in Devon, the title is Area Code, I could be on to something.
At this point I started working on the code. From the first and third letters of 10, I could tell that the keyword must contain IG and F _ _ T and from the second and third letters of 31, K _A and E _ _ H. A bit more research brought forth BUCKFASTLEIGH – woo-hoo! a13-letter Devon town with no repeating letters. This means that the code is: BUCKFASTLEIGHDJMNOPQRVWXYZ.
Thematic entries original and encoded:
| ILFRACOMBE | OKEHAMPTON | AXMINSTER | TAVISTOCK |
| GITYILYXEQ | PAHNIVZMBB | SZPJVHJOK | LTYJGDYIH |
| Across | |||
| No. | Entry | Definition | Wordplay |
| 1 | AUSSIE | Victorian perhaps | IS (rev: recollected) inside A(merican)+USE (employment) |
| 5 | HERESY | Contrary belief | HER+E[s]S[a]Y (oddly) |
| 10 | GITYILYXEQ ILFRACOMBE | (Thematic: Devon town) | FRAIL (anag: unusually) + B(ook) inside COME (arrive) |
| 11 | FANGED | With real teeth | F(ellow) + N(inety) inside AGED |
| 12 | ALEPH | First of traditional series | ALE (beer)+PH (public house) |
| 13 | ELITE | Pick | E(xpand)+LITE (low calorie) |
| 16 | STRADIOT | Horseman | DARTS (rev: back)+IOT[a] (letter from abroad without A) |
| 18 | PAVO | Stars | V(amp) inside OAP (rev: recalled) |
| 20 | MORPHO | Butterfly | MORPH (transform image of)+O(rdinary) |
| 21 | AJOWAN | Plant | A(mateur)+JO[t] (to make a note of)+WAN (pale and sickly) |
| 24 | IGOR | Prince | [r]IGOR[ously] |
| 25 | POLTROON | Coward | PLOT (anag: twist)+ROON (thread) |
| 28 | TANKA | Japanese poem | T(unes)+ANKA (Paul Anka) |
| 29 | LYART | in Scotland, Grey | L(arge)+RAY (rev: about)+[caugh]T |
| 30 | ERENOW | Before this time | ONER (expert) inside WE (all rev: backing) |
| 31 | PAHNIVZMBB OKEHAMPTON | (Thematic: Devon town) |
OK (agreed)+EH (what)+AMP (current)+TON (fashion) |
| 32 | THREAT | Kind of ultimatum | H(otel) inside TREAT (negotiate) |
| 33 | GAY-YOU | Narrow boat | GAY (merry)+YOU (second person) |
| Down | |||
| No. | Entry | Definition | Wordplay |
| 1 | AGNESI | Mathematician (Maria Gaetana Agnesi) |
IS+ENG(ineer)+A (rev: rising) |
| 2 | STAIRFOOT | Level at the bottom | OO (goalless draw) inside AT FIRST (anag: upset) |
| 3 | SYNTAX | Grammatical structure | [solzhenit]SYN TAX[ing] |
| 4 | ELEA | Old colony | E(ast)+LEA (open country) |
| 5 | HYDROMEL | Mead | OLD RHYME (anag: cracking up) |
| 6 | EXACTOR | One claiming title, perhaps | EX (retired)+ACTOR (thespian) |
| 7 | RELY | Bank | RE[al]LY (heartless) |
| 8 | SZPJVHJOK AXMINSTER | (Thematic: Devon town) | AX (American cut)+MIN[i]STER |
| 9 | YAH-BOO | Defiant expression | OH BOY A (anag: staggeringly) |
| 14 | LTYJGDYIH TAVISTOCK | (Thematic: Devon town) | A inside TV (box)+I (single)+STOCK (set of items for sale) |
| 15 | TAPHONOMY | Study of fossils | AT (rev: upset)+O(ld)+M(ale) inside PHONY (fraud) |
| 17 | INNOCENT | Blameless | INN (hotel)+O[rganise]+CENT (change in some places) |
| 19 | NAPHTHA | Distillate that’s inflammable) | PANT+HH (very hard) (anag: manoeuvering)+A |
| 21 | AIGLET | Anything dangling | GALE IT (anag: battered) |
| 22 | FRANZY | Cross (in some places) | A(ustralia)+NZ (New Zealand) inside FRY (Elizabeth Fry) |
| 23 | YNAMBU | Large exotic bird | MANY (rev: turning up)+BU[s] (coach) |
| 26 | BRAE | Bank of (in) Scotland | BRA[v]E (V(ictor)’s out) |
| 27 | BRIG | US jail | B (second class)+RIG (equipment) |
Many years ago I produced a Playfair puzzle for Crossword with BUCKFASTLEIGH as the code word and four six-letter Devon places encoded. Much earlier than that, I discovered, Ximenes had used the same code word in a competition puzzle. As a Devon lad, I was very pleased to see this old idea recycled with a new twist.
The first thematic we got was AXMINSTER, so we spend some time thinking that the theme might be ‘carpets’.
Like RayF, AXMINSTER and ‘carpets'(?) came first, but ILFRACOMBE scotched that one. Had three of the four thematics and was working on the keyword when TAVISTOCK hit me – and it all became very simple (but only after having gone back to the near complete puzzle over a period of a day or so).
Quite a challenge, and different from those of late. (Didn’t like “really” for “certainly” at 7d that much; but OO for “goalless draw” at 2d produced an appreciative groan – last time out it was clued as “spectacles”.)