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Could someone help me with 17 Down?

Thanks

Agree re. 27a. 3d second part is also a homophone.

Hi Peter,

17d - the first word is an instruction as to what to do with the rest of the words in the clue, and they are also the definition - I think it's an &Lit clue but I could be wrong.

Ah, got it. Thanks!

27: Feels far-fetched, but maybe "prepared" relates to a word formed by letters 1,6,7,8 of the solution.

I think Brendan's explanation of 27A makes sense, although the word "once" seems a little redundant.

Hi Rainman,

27a - I think the "once" indicates that that spelling of "you" is archaic as in 'it was once but not anymore' and is confirmed by Chambers.

Hi Geeker,

I think Tim has it right, that it's a contraction of a phrase meaning "we're prepared to" = "we would" = ...... reversed/"to go back".

Of course it should be noted that it was only a few minutes ago I was suggesting there was an error in the clue so .........!

That makes a lot of sense. With that cleared up, it looks like the quality of the clues was uniformly high this week.

I've done it all except 7. Any help would be well received. :-)

Now I believe I've got 7. Can't see the Spooner thing but seems to have something against Helsinki residents.