i Prize Cryptic Crossword 1702 by Phi

Saturday 23^rd July 2016

Without any of his trademark themes, ghost themes or Ninas, last Saturday’s Phi was fairly straightforward affair, but lends itself to a discussion about vocabulary.

Many solvers like to learn a few new words along the way; on the other hand many like to be able to solve on the train, say, without recourse to a dictionary. So the ideal solution, perhaps, is to have a sprinkling of abstruse vocabulary but always very clearly clued by the wordplay.

I think the man or woman on the Clapham omnibus would have been familiar enough (once given a nudge) with Otago, Malagasy and Obbligato, but Phi also gave us Portamento, Ontogeny and Notus. I was able to convince myself (after the event, natch) that I’d always known the first two, but Notus is definitely new to the Cornick household and duly became my last one in. For the record it belongs to a little group of Ancient Greek winds: Boreas, Eurus, Notus and Zephyrus (going clockwise).

And the clueing from Phi for those rarities was, as ever, reliably clear.

COD? Pleasing and definitely not needing a dictionary, 16a:

Football team not expected to release No. 6  (6)

Full answers, parsing and comments courtesy of Fifteensquared in 2011 here.

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