Mephisto 3370 – …or the Mad Hatter’s tea party!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

I have to admit I found this rather tricky.    Unusual vocabulary and tough wordplay combine to make this one difficult to finish; if you are reduced to biffing ynambu and cothurnus, you’ll know you are in for a tussle.     One of the clues doesn’t seem to work, but everything is so convoluted I may have overlooked something.

 

Across
1 Surging mass stokes dam (7)
SMOTHER – S + MOTHER.
6 Feel contempt once tin covers ground over mine (5)
SDAYN – S(DAY)N.
11 Monastery’s an escape from harem (9)
LAMASERAI – LAM A’ SERAI.
13 Bird hampered insect after overturning stacks (6)
YNAMBU –  MANY backwards + BU[g].
14 Quaff mainly as expression of sorrow (5)
WAUGH – WAUGH[t].    Some etymologists have tried to make waught a Scots variant of quaff, but that idea has been voted down.
15 I build bridges though with partner before getting on ferry (8)
PONTIFEX – PONT + IF + EX.    A meaning that may or may not be valid.
16 International head trimmed flag (4)
IRIS – I + RIS[e], as in a headland.
17 Old farm hand caught cat (5)
CHURL – C + HURL.
20 Extremely cruel guy in control I see (8)
DIABOLIC –  DIA(BO)L + I + C.    Bo is today’s random gent.
23 Caring about sloth lying around evergreen tree (8)
GARCINIA – Anagram of CARING + AI backwards.
24 Loaded nachos? No starter’s such a mess (5)
CHAOS – Anagram of [n]ACHOS.
27 Leather tent’s fine for top of rucksack (4)
YUFT – YU(-r,+F)T.
29 Aggregate scores after extra time not accepted (8, two words)
POINT SET –  POINTS + [a.]E.T.
30 Cape, one with lead weights in sash (5)
AMICE – A + MICE, which, of course, are used in windows, as well as in Windows.
31 Performance of Shakespeare cut drastically in Measure (6)
ACTURE – A(anagram of CUT)RE.
32 … company therefore accepting poor run getting boot in tragedy (9)
COTHURNUS – CO + THU(anagram of RUN)S.
33 It’s wet on back of rock snake (5)
KRAIT – [roc]K + RAIT, a variant spelling of ret.
34 Greek character only unusually seen around (7)
YPSILON –  Anagram of ONLY around PSI, an &lit.
Down
1 Broadcaster to test network for communicating online (7)
SKYPING – SKY + PING.
2 Area I’m scattering with corn for poultry (7)
MINORCA – Anagram of A + I’M + CORN.
3 Arab retiring very soon (5)
OMANI – IN A MO backwards.
4 On heroin somewhat with this? (5)
HABIT – H + A BIT.
5 Extravagantly humorous as flying with BA airline? (11)
RABELAISIAN –  Anagram of AS + BA AIRLINE.
7 Fond of hot date — a babe (7, two words)
DEATH ON – Anagram of DATE + HON.
8 Starter of avocado, bergamot perhaps, potato twirls, rocket (7)
ARUGULA –  A[vacado]+ RUG + ALU backwards.
9 One involved in venery, a German? (5)
YAGER – Hidden in [vener]Y A GER[man].   Yes an &lit hidden.
10 Prime positions for knight I’ll love (5)
NIHIL – [k]NI[g]H[t] I'[l]L.   A brilliant clue, only 9 is not a prime.   Can anyone make this work?   If we remove the abbreviation, we would have [k]NI[g]H[t]I[wil]L, where the final L is in the 11th position – maybe that was what was intended?
12 Right in mistake I now amended having rebuffed your tea-party (11)
MUFFINWORRY – MUFF +  anagram of I NOW + R + YR backwards.
18 Curling-stone clipped on American ice (7)
GRANITA – GRANIT[e] + A.
19 Rodent, one by area on grass (7)
ACOUCHI – A + COUCH + I.
21 It’s actively on fire, harbouring glimpse of Nick? (7)
INFERNO – Anagram of ON FIRE containing N[ick] – with a side glance at Dante, making it an &lit.
22 Instrument computing time in research facility (7)
CITTERN – C(IT,T)ERN.
24 Chronicle’s lead reporter to nip in door? (5)
CHACK – C[hronicle]  + HACK.
25 Applaud olden, golden US comedy (5)
HUMOR – HUM + OR.
26 Dire Aussie clubs beset by responsibility (5)
ONCUS -ON(C)US.
28 Me and you with a lot of beer, a regular drink (5)
USUAL – US + U + AL[e].     The royal we, perhaps?

10 comments on “Mephisto 3370 – …or the Mad Hatter’s tea party!”

  1. Brilliant very enjoyable puzzle. 9d and 10d were my CODs. 10 particularly. For that you have to write KNIGHT I’LL in full: KNIGHT I WILL then take the first 5 prime numbers 2,3,5,7,11 positions – kNIgHt I wilL And there you have it.
    I must admit this was my last to parse. It has two wonderful deceptions in first trying to make one take KNIGHT to be N. When you have all the cross checkers, that’s hard to avoid. Then you’re hit by the second of thinking 9 can’t be prime.

    I parsed 31a in an ineligant way: drastically cut MEASURE to URE. Prepend an anagram if CUT = ACT to get ACTURE. But I had to use CUT twice. Jonathan’s is much simpler and straightforward. To put it another way: obviously correct.

  2. I managed a fairly average 54.42 for this, just about remembering MUFFIN WORRY from somewhere in time to replace the FIGHT I started with. I came nowhere near parsing NIHIL, thinking of prime first letters which didn’t work and in the end entering because nothing else would go. I suppose if you include the apostrophe in the positions, 11 ends up on the L of love, which sort of makes the clue an &lit.

  3. And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
    And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
    And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught,
    For auld lang syne.

    The Bard

  4. If 10dn was based on I WILL, it should have said that. Misdirection is fine, but clues should be sound grammatically (that is, in the “grammar” of cryptic clues) and that doesn’t usually include double operations. Thus I WILL in the clue can translate to ILL in the answer and potentially vice versa, but to change I’LL to I WILL and then perform a further operation is, I think, a step too far – and unnecessary, as I WILL would have worked just as well in the clue.

    1. Well I’ve come to expect a deal more skulduggery with Mephisto clueing especially since working my way through some of Mike Laws’ puzzles from Book 1.

      By the way I forgot to mention that A.E.T. isn’t in Chambers. I suppose that’s another piece of Mephistophelian skulduggery?

  6. I wonder if 10dn started as I WILL and then either setter or editor shortened it at some point without realising that it spoiled the wordplay.
    One of the definitions of ‘head’ in Chambers is ‘(of streams, rivers etc) to rise, originate’ which I think must be the intended meaning in 16ac. I thought it was IRISh, but H is not an abbreviation for ‘head’.

    1. Interesting, my notes say: I, Ris(e). But I have nothing in the margin to suggest what meaning I attached to Head.

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