Mephisto 2527 – Mike Laws

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
I usually find Mike the most difficult of the Mephisto setters, but I managed to knock this one out in one sitting, rare for me with Mephisto. Enjoyable crossword with some nice words, maybe a good one for solvers looking to get into barred crosswords. Getting the Mephisto done quickly had a nice side-effect, I got to get an early start on Azed 1914, which was a Letters Latent puzzle (a theme I have difficulty with), but was pretty accessible. There is a mini-theme here, as four games as two pairs make their way into the grid (SNOOKER and BILLIARDS, PATIENCE and SOLITAIRE).

Across
1 APP(e)AL: gentle starter, I like it when 1 across is easy to see
5 SNOOKER: NOOK in SER=(series)
11 PIANOFORTE: IAN(Fleming) and OF(Foreign Office rev) inside PORTE, the Turkish imperial government
13 CAVI(l),TIED
17 O,CELL,I: nice concise wordplay
18 CNICUS: (SUCCIN)ct anagram
20 VENT,(d)ILATE: VENT is an old word for a market
22 SOLITAIRE: ref to 2 down PATIENCE as another name of SOLITAIRE as a card game
25 ROE,STI: the last part being IT,S backwards. A pancake of fried potatoes, which actually sounds tasty, as opposed to the usual foods displayed in the Mephisto
26 NATT(i)ER
27 (h)OURS: there’s a lot of subtractions here, I’m noticing
29 LIST: double definition
30 TROP,ARIA: meaning 7 of PORT, which gets reversed here, in Chambers is “an instrumental tune, a bagpipe composition”, there’s even a meaning 8, a bag
31 BAWDYH,OUSE: the first part of the wordplay being an anagram of (WHY,BAD). Nice clue
32 RELEASE: LEAS about REE
33 EME,ER
 
Down
1 APPROVE: P,P in A ROVE
2 PATIENCE: AT,I in PENCE
3 (c)ANON
4 LOCULI: CUL(t) in OIL*. Chambers in catacombs
6 NOVOCAINE: O,VO,CA in NINE
7 ORIENT: O, then I in RENT
8 OTTO(man): another word for ATTAR
9 EXECUTRESS: EXE(river) then UT(do as in the note) in CRESS, great clue for a nice word
10 RUDAS: anagram of ABSURD-B
15 BILLIARDS: A,ILL reversed in BIRDS
19 CRITIQUE: TI(note),QU(Queen) in CRIE(d)
21 WERTHER: RT in (WHERE)*. A Massenet opera I was not familiar with
23 OT,TAWA: Capital of Canada. Tawas are pretty cool trees.
24 TAKAHE: AH in TAKE, and after our New Zealand Tree comes a New Zealand bird
25 ROT(as in talk rot),OR
28 SPA,E: Divine as in foretell. Reminds me of a little book I found at a yard sale, “how to read tea-leaves by a Scottish spae-wife”.

5 comments on “Mephisto 2527 – Mike Laws”

  1. I enjoyed this – I finished it within the day (on and off) so I thought it must be on the easier side. It did not require a lot of reference to the dictionary – especially since I remembered “spae” from “spaeman” which came up a few weeks ago.

    I think in 6dn it is O (ordinary), VOC (vocative case), A (about) in NINE.

  2. Agreed a very nice but not over taxing puzzle which was a pleasant solve and a nice lead in to AZED’s February oriented letters latent. I also had 6A as N(O-VOC-A)INE
  3. I assume that I am missing the blindingly obvious, but how is the TIED bit of “CAVI(l),TIED” clued in “Inconclusive quibble that’s full of holes”?
    1. What a very good question. I can’t see it either now that you mention it. I saw the cavi(l) bit and just wrote the answer in with T?ED already in place from the down clues and not doing the blog never gave it another thought.

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