Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I enjoyed this one – Tim Moorey always offers up precise and inventive wordplay and there is a lot of it to enjoy here. A reminder that in Mephisto puzzles, definitions can be confirmed in Chambers so I will focus on the wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 4 | Practice with one flying hawk (9) |
| ACCIPITER – anagram of PRACTICE, and I(one) | |
| 10 | Unconcealed single part of harmonic series (8) |
| OVERTONE – OVERT(unconcealed), ONE(single) | |
| 11 | Smash hit’s number one, complete with soprano upfront (4) |
| DOSH -the first letter of Hit after DO(complete) and S(soprano). Chambers gives the definition of smash = money (slang) | |
| 12 | Seasonal visitor put nothing over colouring matter (8) |
| SANTALIN – SANTA(seasonal visitor) and NIL(nothing) reversed | |
| 13 | Cut two thirds of rough drawing (4) |
| ETCH – two thirds of skETCH(rough drawing) | |
| 14 | Check place to get assistance (5) |
| PLAID – PL(place) and AID(assistance0 | |
| 15 | Anxiety shown by supporter of Democrat (6) |
| FANTOD – FAN TO(supporter of), D(democrat) | |
| 17 | Fruit and nuts at soirée not started (7) |
| ETAERIO – anagram of AT and SOIREE missing the first letter | |
| 21 | Spiders: jumping pair seen leaving back of garden (7) |
| EPEIRAS -anagram of PAIR SEEN minus the last letter of gardeN | |
| 23 | Character from Rhodes hosting a dance (7) |
| LAMBADA – LAMBDA(Greek letter) containing A | |
| 26 | Accuse falsely, according to some heartlessly (7) |
| ASPERSE – AS PER(according to), then the exterior letters of SomE | |
| 27 | Go off defending government’s historic list (6) |
| REGEST – REEST(go off) containing G(government) | |
| 28 | Head keeping mum gets stick (5) |
| CAMAN – CAN(head, military term for toilet) containing MA(mum) | |
| 31 | Onset of rain stops wet Perth Test (4) |
| PREE – first letter of Rain inside PEE(wet, urinate) | |
| 32 | Boundaries hit at last but not one ton (8) |
| ABUTTALS – anagram of AT,LAST,BUT minus one T(ton) | |
| 33 | Israeli intelligence uncovered bones (4) |
| OSSA – MOSSAD(Israeli intelligence) minus the external letters | |
| 34 | Network spy leaving tips for young female worker (8) |
| GRISETTE – GRID(network) and SETTER(spy) both missing the last letter | |
| 35 | Peter started to get supplied with fuel (9) |
| PETROLLED – PET(the book of Peter), ROLLED(started) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Energetic person keeps a short time for evangelist (9) |
| GOSPELLER – GOER(energetic person) containing A, SPELL(short time) | |
| 2 | No current benefit concerning grandad? (4) |
| AVAL – remove I(current) from AVAIL(benefit) | |
| 3 | Indian army, one cowardly almost in retreat (4) |
| SENA – A(one) and NESH(cowardly) missing the last letter reversed | |
| 4 | Rather affected French explorer not the first to Canada (6) |
| ARTIER – Jacques CARTIER(French explorer) minus the first letter of Canada. Nice clue – there are many things named after him in Canada | |
| 5 | American fellow leaving rough coalfield covered with dust (7) |
| COLLIED – remove A(american) and F(fellow) from an anagram of COALFIELD | |
| 6 | Potential energy behind domestic gods (7) |
| PENATES -PE(potential energy), NATES(behind) | |
| 7 | Short TV sequence shows missile missing Turkey (5) |
| IDENT – TRIDENT(missile) minus TR(turkey) | |
| 8 | One staggering sum shorter after section removed (8) |
| TOTTERER – TOT(sum), then TERSER(shorter) minus S(section) | |
| 9 | Fish casserole not completely cooked (8) |
| ESCOLARS – anagram of CASSEROLe minus the last letter | |
| 16 | It gives out when pressed in correctly? (9) |
| DISPENSER – anagram of PRESSED,IN | |
| 18 | Reluctant trustee initially making one cross (8) |
| TRAVERSE -AVERSE(reluctant) after TR(trustee) | |
| 19 | Astronomical work, in essence an old tale of adventure (8) |
| ALMAGEST – ALMA(essence), GEST(old tale of adventure) | |
| 20 | Plodding students struggle endlessly? Hard cheese! (7) |
| SAPSAGO – SAPS(plodding students) then AGON(struggle) minus the last letter | |
| 22 | Al’s quip being broadcast as satirical stuff? (7) |
| PASQUIL – anagram of AL’S QUIP | |
| 24 | Man’s on top of a tough youth getting angry (6) |
| HEATED -HE(man), A, TED(tough youth) | |
| 25 | Scottish storyteller showing real eccentricity in play (5) |
| LEEAR – anagram of REAL and E(eccentricity) | |
| 29 | Friendly ex-PM accommodating leader of Tories (4) |
| MATY – the ex-PM is Theresa MAY. Insert the first letter of Tories | |
| 30 | Sailor, head down rests as before (4) |
| ALTS – SALT(sailor) with the S moved to the bottom | |
Keriothe was right—much easier than the one before, and another I’ve finished! Since I have Chambers now, I’ve no excuse not to try, at least, every week.
Congratulations on your acquisition and completion. Maybe I shoulg get Collins.
Well, Collins is free online!
I couldn’t find collie(d) as a verb in Chambers…
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
colly
Thank you. How dumb of me
17a is AT and (S)OIREE, but you knew that, and it was very, very late. Or in my case
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPiGJBHVadA
Thanks – in this case, tired. Usually I have time on Saturday afternoon to write up the blog, but my schedule got out of the way and I was at an event that didn’t wind up until well after midnight and I was (alas) stone cold sober.
4d. I remembered Tim Moorey’s use of “rather”, and your explanation of “more than otherwise” from 4 weeks ago – so that was a very nice clue.
I also liked 29d, the “ex-PM” clue. Very like something you’d see in the Private Eye/Cyclops crossword – although the solution “maty” without an “e” is a more obscure Mephisto-type variant.
Thanks for the blog: I couldn’t work out 25d LEEAR. I kept thinking of (King) Lear as the “play”, and wondering if “real eccentricity” was some mathematical term about “real” numbers.
I found this difficult, but the literals were there, and biffing is possible if you have the vocabulary. I knew accipter, fantod, and Penates, and Cartier was the obvious French explorer. I thought the most brilliant clue was ossa – I’d been pondering every which way, and then in a flash it was obvious.
Stand by for more fun next week. with a much easier puzzle.
Much easier, but wasted time while I had ilia to 33 until I realised it had to be Ossa. I think you can argue ilia from the clue if you allow intelligence uncovered to be (C)IA but Ossa is undoubtedly more straightforward.