rte guide 25

[scooke]

gun- ho horsy!(4) answer was colt
27a- oval and out!(4) e?i?

last clue needed to finish it

[bookbinder]

27 exit

[scooke]

thanks for your help

[ladyalex]

I thought Exit too, but cannot see the connection to Oval.
Would appreciate your thoughts, bookbinder.Thanks.

[bookbinder]

I see it like this:
'eggsy' could be read as 'oval', and 'eggsy' sounds a bit like the beginning of 'exit' (or: eggsit). Or: could someone have made a mistake and put 'oval' instead of 'over'?

[bookbinder]

ladyalex, I've had time to consider my previous reply to your query, and I now realise that what I wrote, at 13:14, was tripe. This may make more sense:
OVAL = a cricket ground in London.
A cricket team is often referred to as an XI.
'and' in Latin is ET.
If we take 'oval' as XI, then put Latin 'and' outside it, we get E XI T, which is (more or less) 'out'.
In my view, and I'm not saying this just because I had a problem with this particular clue, many of the clues that we are faced with on this site are simply poorly written. In this clue (27a), I think that my reasoning is correct, but the compiler has not hinted at a Latin connection, which is an omission on his/her part. And I say this from the point of view of an ex-crossword puzzle compiler.

[ladyalex]

Thank you bookbinder.
I'm sure your answer is correct, but I agree that the question is poorly written. Putting aside the lack of indication of a Latin element, I think the connection between oval and eleven , especially as it is in lower case, is also poor.
Thanks again. :-))