This was a relatively easy from Paul; both the cryptics and answers involved very few obscure words or meanings. The main problem for many solvers will be to start thinking in terms of ordinary words and well-know expressions. Of course, that is relative the the normal level of Mephisto; our friends over in the Quickie blog would say otherwise. I had more difficulty in parsing some of the clues than in arriving at the answer.
I’m sure all the regular Mephisto solvers will have very little difficulty knocking this one off in one sitting.
| 1 | Agree to do broadcast (7) |
| CONSENT – CON + SENT. | |
| 6 | Local farm taking resistance on board causes stress (5) |
| WRICK – W(R)ICK. I would be more likely to think of a wick as a small settlement, but the farm meaning is in there. | |
| 10 | I have these tattered rags (10, two words) |
| THE HEAVIES – Anagram of I HAVE THESE. The serious newspapers in UK slang; I’m not sure which papers these would be nowadays. | |
| 12 | Relinquish new-found gains with respect (8, two words) |
| SIGN AWAY – Anagrams of GAINS + WAY. | |
| 13 | Old game of bones that kicks off nest egg (5) |
| NOVUM – N[est] + OVUM. I wasted a long time thinking this was a removal clue. | |
| 14 | Spenser’s lumpkin backing this slaver (5) |
| DROOL – LOORD backwards. | |
| 15 | College servant during bad incident returned pointed quip (7) |
| EPIGRAM – MAR(GIP)E, all backwards. | |
| 17 | Fruit spirit, good to be knocked back (6) |
| GENIPS – SPINE + G backwards. | |
| 19 | Musical glasses being eastern increase treasure (6) |
| EUPHON – E + UP + HON. | |
| 20 | Historic resort with clear means of access (6, two words) |
| USER ID – USE + RID. Resort as a verb. | |
| 22 | Take part in English season (6) |
| ENGAGE – ENG + AGE. | |
| 24 | Bitter about church with right bishop in charge? (7) |
| ACERBIC – A + CE + R + B + I.C. | |
| 27 | Satellite’s made of titanium and, for the most part, promising (5) |
| TIROS – TI + ROS[y]. | |
| 28 | Locally squat is demanding where first son should be born (5) |
| FUBSY – FU(-s,+B)SY. | |
| 29 | Pericles, for one, advanced after that one article (8) |
| ATHENIAN – A + THEN + I + AN. | |
| 30 | Sadly this Nepali could be lacking culture (10) |
| PHILISTEAN – Anagram of THIS NEPALI, giving us the Miltonic version of Philistine. | |
| 31 | Glow as husband enters function (5) |
| SHINE – S(H)INE. | |
| 32 | Toff, shunning quiet, to make urgent appeal for songs (7) |
| ARIOSOS – ARI[st]O + SOS. This may seem wrong, but ‘st is given in Chambers as hush or quiet. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Swimmer’s constant old grief (5) |
| CTENE – C + TENE, one I biffed, and then checked. | |
| 2 | Sneer rudely about plonk’s soothing ingredients (8) |
| NERVINES – Anagram of SNEER around VIN. | |
| 3 | Quiet Brutus perhaps is a jerk (5) |
| SHRUG – SH + RUG. Both Brutus and rug are terms for a wig. | |
| 4 | New voice owing to African cash (6) |
| NAIRAS – N + AIR + AS. | |
| 5 | Entertainment is very good in flat (6, two words) |
| TV GAME – T(VG)AME. | |
| 6 | Victory on hill involving grand weapon (7) |
| WINDGUN – WIN + D(G)UN. | |
| 7 | Build up military from the beginning again (5) |
| REARM – REAR + M[ilitary], a bit of an &lit. | |
| 8 | Logic has to fancy one into disorder? (10) |
| CHAOLOGIST – Anagram of LOGIC HAS TO. | |
| 9 | Printer’s drawing stuff under early loading place (7) |
| KEYLINE – KEY + LINE. Key here represents the modern quay, and line probably refers to goods in stock, among other possible definitions. | |
| 11 | Sewer might use this from the tropics for a change (10, two words) |
| ROPE STITCH – Anagram of THE TROPICS. | |
| 16 | Saboteur (he’s first inside) all but to laud rusty old swords (8) |
| SHABBLES – S(H)AB + BLES[s]. | |
| 17 | Axes abbreviated interface for engaging with those at sea (7) |
| GUITARS – G.U.I. + TARS. | |
| 18 | For Scots, crock is no longer near to an endearing term (7) |
| PIGSNIE – PIG’S + NIE. | |
| 21 | Youth picked up one — behold — old temptress (6) |
| DALILA – LAD backwards + I + LA. More commonly transliterated as Delilah. | |
| 22 | European on about retreat — it seems long but won’t last! (6) |
| ECLAIR – E + C + LAIR. Vague definition, easy wordplay. | |
| 23 | Adversary ends up in north wind (5) |
| FOEHN – FOE + N[ort]H upside-down. | |
| 25 | Pay for the smallest ring (5, two words) |
| RUN TO – RUNT + O. MER at the literal, which seems a little off. | |
| 26 | John outside hostel beginning to sing blues (5) |
| CYANS – C(Y)AN + S[ing]. Cyans are not technically blues, but OK. | |
Another successful completion. However 20a was the only clue that I couldn’t work out the construction. I was bent on taking historic resort to mean UR. Therein lay source of my difficulty. As ever thanks for the blog.
22: Eclair
The clue refers to the famous definition of eclair in Chambers: “long in shape but short in duration”…
Ta for the blog. 9d: LINE may be STUFF, in the sense of ‘stuff your pockets etc.’ On the other hand, it may not.
That’s the way I took LINE = LINEN = STUFF
KEYLINE: Chambers includes “stuff” in the definition for line: “to fill or stuff”.
ECLAIR was my first thought on reading the clue for 22dn, before even starting to parse it – as Mark Sanderson says, it’s a famous definition.
CYANS – cyan refers to blue ink in printing. How is Y hostel – is it a further abbreviation for the abbreviation YHA?
REARM – I don’t think the clue quite works. “Again” is needed for the &lit definition, but doesn’t contribute to the wordplay. Also, being picky, “military from the beginning” doesn’t mean “the beginning of military” (ie M).
Y is a further abbreviation of YMCA (in Chambers under Y).
7d works because build up = REAR and M = Military. Then read it a second time with BUILD UP MILITARY as the definition. Whether that’s called &lit or not is another matter. I used that term on on this web site once and was rebuked so I no longer use it to describe a clue where the content, wholly or partly, contributes to the definition and the word play, which is what’s happening here.
15A Does gip mean college servant?
Yes, specific to Cambridge. It’s listed in Chambers as ‘gyp’ but if you look up ‘gip’ you’ll see that it’s an alternative spelling.
Yes – see GYP in Chambers
I found this quite tricky, but as you say my problem was often looking for something obscure when an ordinary term was required. USER ID, one of my last in, was an example of this.
Ditto
Not too difficult but a lot of fun, enjoyed the pun in the top row and the reference to the definition of ECLAIR.