Mephisto 2635 – Tim Moorey?

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Not sure if there’s some Mephisto funny business going on, but 2633 was a Tim Moorey puzzle, so either Mike Laws is taking a break or something is out of whack. I found this one very difficult to get started on, and my first run through the grid was filled with little question marks (although ultimately only one incorrect answer. A lengthy session with Chambers filled in the bits, but I’d say this is on the harder side of Mephistos. It didn’t help that my literary knowledge was not up to snuff.

Away we go…

Across
1 MPRET: P in TERM reversed – ruler of Albanian
5 ALSATIA(n): needed wordplay for this – criminal sanctuary in Whitefriars
10 F,RECKLING: RECKLING as puny was new to me
12 TIN(money),HORN(gore): small-time gambler. I hope I wasn’t the only one looking for —–AL?
13 ESDA: hidden, a forensic test on documents
14 CREPON: REP(corded cloth) in CON(learn)
15 TOY,ON(close to): Think of toy here like Toy Poodle, Toy Schnauzer or Toy Rottweiler
16 TBILSI: BIL(l) in TIS,1 – capital of Georgia
18 ANGICO: A, then GI in NCO
22 RES,HIP
23 BOOT(kick),LEG(on): I live in the Deep South of the United States, so this was amongst my first in.
24 RADGE: R for M in MADGE
26 AUGEAN: (h)UGE in A(one),A(Across),N
28 LOMA: A,MOL(l) reversed
30 ISEGRIM: anagram of (cr)IES,GRIM – the wolf in “Reynard the Fox” which I had never heard of
31 LERMONTOV: (MENTOR)* in LOV(e) fortunately he’s in Bradfords, I’d never heard of him either. This is the puzzle where we learn of George’s pig-ignorance
32 SISSOOS: take the first letters off of AS MISS BOOS
33 NO,YES: finally a literary reference I remember
 
Down
1 MUTE: UT in MEAN without A,N. Raised an eyebrow at the definition, but it checks out, you can “plea mute” if you do refuse to acknowledge a charge
2 PR,IS,ON (the) HOUSE
3 R,AND,Y: the first and last letters of RED ARMY
4 T,R,OUNCE: Hadn’t hit that TOUNCE can mean indict before. Wordplay has our old favorite R=take
5 AEROTONE: ERO(s) in AT ONE
6 SKY,R
7 ALLELES: SELE(good fortune) reversed after ALL
8 TIEPIN: I in (INEPT)*
9 AGANIPPE: AGA(in) then NIPPE(r)
11 NEOSTIGMINE: (IM,NOT,SEEING)*
15 TAN BALLS: hmmm… TAN BALLS are pressurized bark used by tanners for fuel. And I see the TAN part from brown… but I don’t know where BALLS comes from. I don’t recommend googling TAN BALLS or BROWN BALLS in order to find out. A little help?
20 PER,AEON: and those fiddlers are fiddler crabs
21 ROGER(goose),S
25 DORKY: OK interspersed in DRY
27 A,LOO: very nice clue – CHAT is street food in India
29 AMIS(s): winding up with another literatry reference, though more recent and gentle than the others

5 comments on “Mephisto 2635 – Tim Moorey?”

  2. I think the ‘chat’ is a potato – see Chambers, which is ‘aloo’ in India.
    1. Interesting – I didn’t even bother looking that one up, thinking it had to be a reference to the street food (particularly with “perhaps” at the end, since not all chat is aloo, but all “poor potato” chat would be aloo).

      Thanks for informing me as to the existence of Ed Balls, sounds like I’m not missing much

  3. Agree, a reasonably difficult one although unusually for me I had stumbled across the literary bits before (and the fox has appeared here before because I recall blogging him)

    Ed Balls is for some one of the most aptly named English politicians ever who hung onto Brown’s coat tails and is now shadow chancellor and still pushing his particular line of Balls shall we say.

  4. Mike Laws was unwell for a while so we swapped a few puzzles around. He’s back for 2637.

    Glad to see that others strugged to start this one. I was very slow out of the blocks, and seemed to get various answers that should have been easy with help from the “harder” ones.

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