Mephisto 3204 – One who always causes grief!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto
This was not terribly difficult, and I finished in one sitting.   I would have finished much more quickly if I had not carelessly biffed sdaign and grenadilla, but I eventually realized the problem, and used the cryptics to straighten out my crooked answers.    I didn’t understand all the cryptics while solving, but I checked Chambers afterwards, and all the requisite meanings were there.    So I don’t imagine hardened Mephisto solvers will find this very difficult.

This week’s pun was unusually straightforward, and works in nearly all dialects.   However, the top row was really quite easy, so I hardly noticed it.  Opsomaniac and Ngunis were the only two answers I didn’t know and had to look up, which makes these puzzles a lot easier.

So how did you get on?

Across
1 Firm consulting corrupt influence lacking heart (8)
CONSTANT – CONS + TA[i]NT
7 Youth and the old grief in illegitimate enterprise (4)
TEEN – hidden in  [illegitima]TE EN[terprise].
10 Firing up a grill and a fruit (10)
GRANADILLA – Anagram of A GRILL AND A.
11 Somehow this common pot could possibly be patulous (5)
USUAL – Partial anagram – USUAL + POT is an anagram of PATULOUS.
12 Mould previously seen as being in plural form’s term (5)
PLASM – PL + AS + [for]M.
14 Most remote loch on a certain grotty islet (9)
LONELIEST – L + ONE + anagram of ISLET.
17 Look into a special time for family worship (7)
PRAYERS – P(RAY)ERS, where pers = personal, and a ray is indeed a look.
19 When filling cherry cut ornamentally (5)
RASED – R(AS)ED.
20 Devotional books and things attached to bishop’s staff (6)
ORARIA –  Double definition, where a couple crossers will send you to Chambers unless you can biff it.
21 Blue Beret’s organisation’s help withdrawn? (6)
UNSAID –  UN’S AID.
23 Pastor leading gross old fold (5)
PRANK –  P + RANK.
25 Modest housing identification with central point? (7)
MIDWEEK –  M(ID,W)EEK.
27 Who won’t look out? Modish gadabout taking part in bike races (9)
INTROVERT –  IN + T(ROVER)T, as we once again return to the Isle of Man.
30 Chilling being in charge west of meadow in Alnwick, eg (5)
ICING – IC + ING.
31 Guts or Biden’s turgidity (5)
TUMOR – TUM + OR – if it were Bojo, it would be a tumour.
32 In a novel way rephrasing forester’s office (10)
RANGERSHIP –  Anagram of REPHRASING, very good.
33 Think about including unknown money for meals and similar (4)
EXES –  SEE backward containg X.   Presumably a slang word for expenses, but I could not find it in Chambers.
34 Take Yankee’s letter back via game hunter from US? (8, two words)
GREY WOLF –  G(R,WYE backwards)OLF, where Yankee’s letter is used to indicate the spelled-out Y.
Down
1 Term, we hear, for the epiploon (4)
CAUL – Sounds like CALL.
2 I’m nuts for some food: a champion so knocking out hot cooking (10)
OPSOMANIAC –  Anagram of A CHAMPION SO minus H.
3 Early slang for shame spinning round piece for Africans (6)
NGUNIS – N(GUN)IS, with SIN backwards on the outside.
4 Credit it by supporter (5)
TALLY – ‘T ALLY.
5 New notepad containing one exact opposite rarely used now (8)
ANTIPODE – Anagram of NOTEPAD + I.
6 Scruff’s Northern parody (4)
NAPE – N + APE, a starter clue.
7 Quad parked south of hut where tournaments took place (8, two words)
TILT YARD –  TILT + YARD – yes, a tilt is a hut or tent, you could look it up.
8 Skipjack that you’d like to think would puff you up? (6)
ELATER –  Double definition.
9 One with identical designation means Kea must be changed (8)
NAMESAKE – Anagram of MEANS KEA.
13 Season and then start savoury (10, two words)
SPRING ROLL –  SPRING + ROLL, as in let’s roll!
15 Droll female in dreadful discharge (8)
DRUMFIRE –  D(RUM F)IRE – dreadful is not part of the literal, but should be.
16 Sails and goes about taking in local river (8, two words)
SEA WINGS – S(EA)WINGS.
18 Heavy metal, say, had source in plant (8, two words)
ROCK ROSE –  ROCK + ROSE, in entirely different senses.
22 Once deem unworthy small lunch before being brought in (6)
SDAINE –  S + D(A)INE.   I had biffed sdaign and got myself into trouble
24 A sub getting round in time (6, two words)
A TEMPO – A TEMP + O.
26 Thursday in son’s simple shiel (5)
BOTHY – BO(TH)Y, which I put in from the cryptic, and then looked up shiel to make sure.
28 Rocky hill is scorching — last two characters must be pulled out (4)
TORR –  TORR[id].
29 Primarily this really expresses “forbidden” (4)
TREF – First letters of T[his] R[eally] E[xpresses] “F[orbbiden].   Back in the day, I had an Orthodox fellow working for me who was always citing the old proverb: if it tastes good, it’s not kosher!

6 comments on “Mephisto 3204 – One who always causes grief!”

  1. Many thanks as ever to both setter and blogger.

    Re 17 ac, might I suggest that the definition is “time for family worship” and that “personal” equals “special”? Chambers’ entry for personal doesn’t seem to suggest “special” — at least to me — but the reverse action (the entry for special) does come closer to personal. Or perhaps that’s just me.

    Re 33 ac — exes is an entry all of its own in Chambers.

    1. I agree about the definition in 17ac. The Chambers entry for PRAYER includes ‘in pl (a time set aside for) worship in a family, school etc’. The wordplay is P(RAY)ER, S where PER is indicated by ‘a’ and ‘special’ is just S.
      I found this very easy: Dean’s puzzle took me longer!
  2. Thanks vinyl1 and paul mckenna- very enjoyable as usual. For 17a- I read it as per equals a and s equals special. For 30a I dont understand fully how west of meadow in alnwick, eg parses as ING though- guess its wing without the initial W but can’t see why. Hadnt twigged exes as expenses- obviously don’t claim enough of them!

Comments are closed.