Guardian

[kayakamina]

Whence comes Laconian's first instalment? (6)

??ie??

[Quizmonkey]

Briefs ?

[ulysses100]

Are you sure that these letters are correct ?

A Laconian comes from Sparta = 'S PART A

[kayakamina]

Thanks QuizMonkey

I now have the second letter as V. Does OVIEDO mean anything to you?

[Quizmonkey]

No, not in Chambers! Laconian (or more usually, Laconic) means concise, short, pithy - hence my guess at BRIEFS - but I couldn't satosfactorily explain the rest of the clue.

[Quizmonkey]

My guess at how this clue works would be:

Laconian's first = L
Then a word for instalment
And the whole thing would roughly be defined by the whole clue (eg an '&lit' clue).

And I do think one or two of your letters may be wrong...

Good luck!

[kayakamina]

I've confirmed via the Guardian that the answer is OVIEDO .

Still trying to work it out but Thanks

[crofter]

kayakamina I find that OVIEDO is a town in N. Spain and has nothing to do with the clue.

In fact, ulysses100 had solved it, but was ignored! The clue is for a solution of SPARTA (not OVIEDO).

Reading the first half of the clue, we have "Whence comes Laconian" = SPARTA.

The second half of the clue reads " 's first instalment" where first instalment is "Part A"!

This is a beautifully crafted clue - for SPARTA!!!!!!!

I wonder just how much time we all spent on this false clue? Well done ulysses (the greek?)

[kayakamina]

Well said Crofter! Belated thanks to Ulysses and what a lot of time over one clue!

Cheers

[ulysses100]

Thankyou crofter for your comments. I did wonder why everybody else was going on about briefs and Oviedo !!!

And no -- I'm not Greek !!!