Greetings barred-grid fans!
I like Mephisto being back to a three-week rotation, it means I get to blog all of the setters in turn. It is a while since I’ve written up a John Grimshaw puzzle, I like his clues, typically concise and excellent surfaces. Those constraints do make for some difficult clues, and this took me longer than usual to complete. Remember to check Chambers if you disagree with a definition, it will probably disagree with you!
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Up north, temporarily plant peace tree of old (6) |
| SHEUGH – SH(peace), EUGH(old spelling of yew, tree) | |
| 6 | Country with a Polish president (6) |
| WALESA – WALES(country) and A | |
| 10 | Desperately covet an old piece of Portugal (7) |
| CENTAVO – anagram of COVET,AN | |
| 11 | Counter simply is too short (5) |
| MEREL – MERELY(simply) minus the last letter | |
| 12 | Chauffeur carries rag, part of a long-standing arrangement? (7) |
| STATICE – SICE(chauffeur) containing TAT(rag) | |
| 13 | Attitudes to English heroic poems (6) |
| EPOSES – POSES(attitudes) next to E(English) | |
| 14 | Old walk right over — walk wearily (4) |
| TROG – GO(walk, obsolete), and RT(right) all reversed | |
| 15 | Making savings including drive mechanism in train? (11, two words) |
| SPUR GEARING – SPARING(making savings) containing URGE(drive). | |
| 16 | Jersey postal system collection (7) |
| MAILLOT – MAIL(postal system), LOT(collection) | |
| 22 | Rook hash which has many bones (7) |
| RHACHIS – R(rook in chess), HACHIS(hash). My last one in. | |
| 24 | A pet piranha going wild, such as can cause blood loss? (11) |
| APHANIPTERA – anagram of A,PET,PIRANHA | |
| 26 | Ditch local environmentalist that’s no good (4) |
| REEN – GREEN(environmentalist) minus G(good). It’s that Somerset word again! | |
| 27 | Ready for Janacek? Knockout sequence of notes at end of Sinfonietta (6) |
| KORUNA – KO(knockout), RUN(sequence of notes) and the last letter of sinfonettiA. Referencing the Czech composer – and one of his final pieces composed was The Sinfonietta. | |
| 29 | God covered in old red dye round altar decoration (7) |
| GRADINO – D(deus, god) inside GRAIN(an old term for cochineal dye), O(round) | |
| 30 | I laze about dying fire in ingle? (5) |
| AIZLE – anagram of I,LAZE | |
| 31 | Central town on the Broads, a place to eat (7) |
| CENACLE – CEN(central) and ACLE(a town known as the Gateway to the Broads) | |
| 32 | Smooth tranquillity once interrupting weather (6) |
| SLEEKY – LEE(tranquility) inside SKY(weather) | |
| 33 | Address in Portuguese senate hours before (6) |
| SENHOR – SEN(senate), H(hours), OR(before) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Loon coming from SA direct to South Carolina (6) |
| SCHELM – HELM(direct) next to SC(South Carolina) | |
| 2 | Height divine for the Scots climbing a lot (5) |
| HEAPS – H(height), then SPAE(divine for the Scots) reversed | |
| 3 | Unusual tone on photo developed in the usual place (7) |
| ENTOPIC – anagram of TONE, then PIC(photo). Don’t think I’ve seen this term before, though its antonym is well known. | |
| 4 | Two notes above second octave (4) |
| UTAS – the two musical notes are UT and A, then S(second) | |
| 5 | Royal Mile beggar developing brazen guile (11) |
| GABERLUNZIE -anagram of BRAZEN GUILE, referring to the stretch leading to Edinburgh Castle. | |
| 6 | Knows traditionally rain comes around extreme end of March (7) |
| WOTTETH – WET(rain) surrounding OTT(extreme) and the last letter in marcH. One of the many variations of WIT | |
| 7 | Latvian concerned with line from abroad (6) |
| LETTRE – LETT(Latvian), RE(concerned with) | |
| 8 | Lower parts I learned once with European soprano transposed upwards (7) |
| SECONDI – I, COND(learned, once), E(European) and S(soprano) each on top of each other (not reversed). I don’t think I’ve seen this device in a clue before. | |
| 9 | Relieve old generation without support (6) |
| ALEGGE – AGE(generation) surrounding LEG(support) | |
| 11 | Molly perhaps eating a weight of fruit (11) |
| MALAKATOONE – Molly MALONE (crying “cockles, and mussels, alive-alive-o”) surrounding A, KAT(weight, found in Chambers under KHAT), and O(of) | |
| 17 | A great deal unfinished around theatre raised danger for actors (7) |
| APPERIL – A PILE(great deal) minus the last letter surrounding REP(theatre) reversed | |
| 18 | Gem quality men I see ultimately fancy, but no fine one (7) |
| ORIENCY – OR(men), I, then the last letter of seE, then faNCY minus F(fine) and A(one). | |
| 19 | Local press in US clear it with church (7) |
| THRUTCH – THRU(version of THROUGH in the US – for THROUGH=CLEAR think customs), ‘T(it), CH(church) | |
| 20 | Banned weapon Middle East left out of military exercises (6, two words) |
| WAR GAS – remove ME(Middle East) from WAR GAMES(military exercises) | |
| 21 | Pliant timber for binding round stripped ends (6) |
| WANDLE – WALE(timber for binding) surrounding eNDs missing the exterior letters | |
| 23 | What could be series about retiree? (6) |
| SOAPER – SER(series) surrounding OAP(retiree) | |
| 25 | Brit fish, mostly ordinary (5) |
| ANGLO – ANGLE(fish) minus the last letter, O(ordinary) | |
| 28 | Antelope raised must yield good type of leather (4) |
| ROAN – NAGOR(antelope) reversed minus G(good) | |
I found this very hard indeed, and I was quite liberally cheating by the end. In the old days I’d have spent ages alphabet trawling and rooting about in the Big Red Book, but the Chambers app offers shortcuts which I usually eschew, but were just too tempting on this occasion.
1A can only find sheugh to mean a ditch
11A can only find merel to mean a blackbird
12A can only find statice to mean sea lavender
As usual, they’re all in Chambers. MEREL, for example, is an alternative spelling of MERIL.
25d. I am reluctantly at present a BRIT, though that may still change within my lifetime. However, I find it quite offensive and ignorant to be described as ANGLO. (And yes, I’ve heard of the Anglo-Irish Agreement etc etc.)
Might there be a rare error in the solution to 2 Down in today’s puzzle (Number 3336)?
Isn’t the U in the wrong place?
Just asking…
Shouldn’t give too much away because it is a live puzzle, but for 2 down I have wordplay that leads directly to a word with the indicated spelling and definition in Chambers.
Thank you for the blog.
The three-week rotation also does make it interesting as a reader of these blogs – to see both of you having to tackle all of the setters again.