Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I finished this one in two short sessions, so I don’t think it was all that difficult by Mephisto standards. I really enjoy Robert Teuton’s clues, he has a knack for putting a sense of fun in the economical clues required for a puzzle like this.
A reminder that in Mephisto puzzles definitions can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on the wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Arrowhead shot left clipping wolf almost (7) |
| ELF-BOLT – anagram of LEFT containing BOLT(wolf, eat quickly) minus the last letter | |
| 6 | Spiral canal perhaps that is an outgrowth (5) |
| SCALA – SC(scilicet, that is), ALA(a botanical outgrowth) | |
| 11 | Brown rebuffed over political alliance (4) |
| NATO – TAN(brown) reversed, then O(over) | |
| 12 | Usually a sailor’s fears are waves (8) |
| SEAFARER – anagram of FEARS,ARE | |
| 13 | Kyanite is again found in pass (8) |
| DISTHENE – ‘S(is), THEN(again) inside DIE(pass) | |
| 15 | With a lot of passion perhaps watch jazz musician (8) |
| RAGTIMER – RAGE(passion) minus the last letter, then TIMER(watch) | |
| 16 | Lumpsucker to splash about lacking depth (5) |
| PADLE – PADDLE(splash about) minus D(depth) | |
| 17 | Knowing way of working lawnmower (5) |
| FLYMO – FLY(knowing), MO(way of working) | |
| 19 | Uncovered hostelry shifting endless beer and Blackthorn (8) |
| SLOETREE – anagram of the internal letters of hOSTELRy, then the internal letters of bEEr | |
| 22 | English parson’s blessed religious literature (8) |
| RESPONSA – anagram of E(English), PARSON’S | |
| 23 | Leapfrog very rapid Canadian taking lead (5) |
| VAULT – V(very), then SAULT(a Canadian rapid) minus the first letter. I’ve been to SAULT Ste Marie, a rather fun Canadian border town. | |
| 25 | It’s lonely up north — dumped — Jack’s left (5) |
| UNKED – JUNKED(dumped) minus J(Jack) | |
| 28 | Internet boffin half-heartedly snarls expression of joy — connection’s back (8) |
| INFOBAHN – anagram of BOFfIN minus one F, then AH(expression of joy) and the last letter of connectioN | |
| 30 | Knife somehow husked round nut (8) |
| SKENE-DHU – anagram of HUSKED surrounding EN(nut) | |
| 31 | Incorrect swimming stroke? Continue progressing wearily (8) |
| TRUDGEON – to continue progressing wearily is to TRUDGE ON. Given in Chambers as an incorrect spelling of TRUDGEN | |
| 32 | Poison’s start of unsavoury precedence (4) |
| UPAS – first letter of Unsavoury, then PAS(precedence) | |
| 33 | Jewish Mr Big’s flipping serious (5) |
| SOBER – REB(Jewish equivalent for Mr), then OS(big) all reversed | |
| 34 | Dark’s natural after sun’s moving east to west (7) |
| SWARTHY – EARTHY(natural) after S(sun) with E(east) changed to W(west) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Soup and ketchup both do arrive eventually (5, two words) |
| END UP – soUP and ketchUP both END in UP | |
| 2 | Sounding similar to a dog (5) |
| LAIKA – homophone of LIKE(similar to), then A. I knew this was the name of the first dog in space, did not know it was also a breed. Apologies – in the original blog I had anagram instead of homophone, must remember to proofread more carefully. | |
| 3 | See unnaturally toned bob and tell it’s me? (12) |
| BOTTLE-BLONDE – anagram of TONED,BOB and TELL | |
| 4 | Glasgow bouncer runs after a devious character returning (5) |
| LEEAR – R(runs) after A,ELL(devious character) reversed. Bouncer can mean liar. | |
| 5 | Characteristic flavour that is taste of Scottish spirits (7) |
| TANGIES – TANG(characteristic flavour), IE(that is) and the first letter of Scottish | |
| 7 | Dodge perhaps suspect online URL — such rings a bell or two (12) |
| CARILLONNEUR – CAR(Dodge is an American make of car, now owned by Fiat) then an anagram of ONLINE,URL | |
| 8 | Uranium found in power plant (4) |
| ARUM – U(uranium) inside ARM(power) | |
| 9 | Words seem complicated added to law (7) |
| LEXEMES – anagram of SEEM after LEX(law) | |
| 10 | Powder and tincture put back in wagon (7) |
| ARAROBA – OR(gold tincture) reversed inside ARABA(wagon) | |
| 14 | On reflection both sides of Atlantic accepting to complete puzzle … (6) |
| SUDOKU – UK and US(both sides of the Atlantic) all reversed containing DO(to complete) | |
| 18 | … edited after American’s tweaked (6) |
| YANKED – ED(edited) after YANK(American) | |
| 19 | Old fools about to fight councils (7) |
| SOVIETS – SOTS(fools) surrounding VIE(to fight) | |
| 20 | Everything about Roman emperor — “I like plain living” (7) |
| LLANERO – ALL(everything) reversed, then NERO(Roman emperor) | |
| 21 | New film versions? First person’s back in more than one scrape (7) |
| REMAKES – ME(first person) reversed inside RAKES(more than one scrape) | |
| 24 | How much that hurts old slave (5) |
| THEOW – THE (by how much) then OW(that hurts) | |
| 26 | Heap up hard measure (5) |
| EPHAH – anagram of HEAP, then H(hard) | |
| 27 | Put oneself in withered rough (5) |
| DRUSY – US(oneself) inside DRY(withered) | |
| 29 | Mistake viral infection that’s close to TB (4) |
| FLUB – FLU(viral infection) then the last letter of TB | |
I got a really good start on this earlier in the week, and filled in the holes last night. Somehow never got to the bottom of the Canadian part of the VAULT clue, though I sussed that it was V + ?AULT, and my forgetting that “is” can be ’s in Mephisto left me still wondering about the parsing of DISTHENE too. For ELF-BOLT, I saw a backward almost-wolf in LOB(o) with the rest an obvious anagram of “left,” but am happy to be corrected.
There’s no reversal indicator though. I read it the same way as George.
Bien sûr. I said I was happy with the correction.
As ’s can mean “is” in plain English like the first instance in “Peter’s replying to Guy’s comment”, I don’t understand why “is” shouldn’t indicate ’s in a standard cryptic crossword.
Come to think of it… I was lumping that in with certain other contractions that certainly have more currency in Mephisto than elsewhere.
The penny finally dropped yesterday morning on the Canadian part of ?AULT. I kept thinking that T came from the head of TAKING.
Like Guy I had LOB(o) for wolf, but I was never happy with that as I needed to use Left twice. BOL(t) is the more natural interpretation – thanks George.
2D isn’t an anagram
Ta – sorry, missed that when I was checking back over the blog.
As David (above) says, 2dn comprises a homophone followed by A.
Being pedantic, a skene-dhu (or skean-dhu) (30ac) is a dagger, not a knife. A skene/skean, coming from the Gaelig sgian, may be a knife, but skean-dhu refers more specifically to a dagger carried in the stocking.
I think you can invoke Chambers 3 degrees of separation – skene-dhu is defined as a dirk or dagger. Dirk is defined as a dagger. Dagger is defined as a knife or short sword. We can leave it to Crocodile Dundee as the ultimate official on whether something is a knife or not.
I did complete this, but it involved heavy slogging through reference books.
One interesting point: in a phrase like the more, the merrier, the is not the usual definite article, but a fossilized instance of the instrumental case, which died out relatively early in English and other Germanic languages.
That is indeed interesting!