Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I’m surprised I got through this one as readily as I did – last Sunday was the day after the Charlotte Bourbon, Beer and BBQ festival which featured all the bourbon you can drink, and I found out exactly how much bourbon I could (not should) drink. Here I am a few days later hoping to re-unravel the clues.
Fewer unusual words than expected for Mephisto and the John Grimshaw precise clueing made this one a very pleasant experience indeed.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Pilgrim friend, not entirely pure in the past (6) |
| PALMER – PAL(friend) then MERE(obsolete term for pure) minus the last letter | |
| 6 | One knowing hovel’s changed hands (6) |
| KENNER – KENNEL(hovel) with the L changed for an R | |
| 11 | Savage conflict left in anger (8) |
| WARRAGLE – WAR(conflict) then L(left) inside RAGE(anger) | |
| 12 | Scots intend land free of the south (5) |
| ETTLE – SETTLE(alight, land) minus S(south) | |
| 13 | Learned about old rook bird’s first year (6) |
| SORAGE – SAGE(learned) surrounding O(old) and R(rook) | |
| 14 | Style of art I exhibited once in North America (7) |
| NIHONGA – I, HONG(obsolete form of HUNG, exhibited) inside NA(North America) | |
| 15 | Scots turn to Ireland (4) |
| TIRL – T'(to), IRL(Ireland) | |
| 16 | Site once processed mineral (8) |
| ICESTONE -anagram of SITE,ONCE | |
| 20 | Fish bone embedded turned concerning (7) |
| OSSETER – OS(bone), SET(embedded), then RE(concerning) reversed | |
| 22 | Following track once around Quebec (7) |
| SEQUENT – SENT(earlier form of SCENT, track) surrounding QUE(Quebec) | |
| 26 | Green government lacking a certain bit of body? (8) |
| ECOSTATE – ECO(green), STATE(government) | |
| 27 | Joint way to access computer’s no good (4) |
| LOIN – LOGIN(way to access computer) minus G(good) | |
| 28 | Waterbird? Goburra regularly is included in related group (7) |
| COURLAN – alternating letters in gObUrRa inside CLAN(related group). | |
| 30 | Fear once learned after active duty (6) |
| ADREAD – READ(learned) after AD(Active Duty) | |
| 31 | Loos working with old penny coin that’s obsolete (5) |
| SOLDO – anagram of LOOS and D(old penny) | |
| 32 | Church helper more commonly seen on a weekday (8) |
| THURIFER – RIFER(more commonly) after THU(Thursday, a weekday) | |
| 33 | American in his synagogue losing time shut in (6) |
| EMPALE – A(American) inside TEMPLE(synagogue) minus T(time) | |
| 34 | Thief once held back by harem minder? (6) |
| NIMMER – hidden reversed inside haREM MINder | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Domestic fowl in picture of compound (6) |
| PHENIC – HEN(domestic fowl) inside PIC(pic). Bit of PTSD here as I’ve been helping out some people with their organic chemistry recently | |
| 2 | Mad king acted in Shakespeare’s made grotesque (8) |
| ANTICKED – anagram of K(king), ACTED,IN | |
| 3 | In Hamlet he endured death, as the Bard had it (6) |
| LETHEE – hidden inside hamLET HE Endured | |
| 4 | Fodder crop, mass one of small value reportedly (4) |
| MILO – M(mass), I(one), then a homophone of LOW(of small value) | |
| 5 | Managed what survivors do where junta is in power (7) |
| RANGOON – RAN(managed) and GO ON(what survivors do). No question mark as I doubt Myanmar will be on the democracy list anytime soon. I was wondering if there should be an indicator that this is the older name, since the junta renamed the city YANGON | |
| 7 | English stories out of place? Who cares? Could be (8) |
| EROTESIS -E(English) and an anagram of STORIES | |
| 8 | New plaster coating put round hospital vestibule (7) |
| NARTHEX – N, ARTEX(plaster) surrounding H(hospital) | |
| 9 | Tree out in Goa (5) |
| NGAIO – anagram of IN,GOA | |
| 10 | Bird about eating fish on river (6) |
| REELER – RE(about) containing EEL(fish) then R(river) | |
| 17 | Eve put in route pin on board (8) |
| TREENAIL – EEN(eve) inside TRAIL(route) | |
| 18 | Poet’s set about finest verse book that’s turned up (8) |
| BESTADDE – BEST(finest) then EDDA(verse book) reversed | |
| 19 | What may be planted in garden private area (7) |
| GUNNERA – GUNNER(private), A(area) | |
| 21 | Sadly does not put up in Scotland (7) |
| STOODEN – anagram of DOES,NOT | |
| 22 | Part of Balmoral roof he sculpted recently (6) |
| SCLATE – SC(sculpsit, he sculpted), LATE(recently) | |
| 23 | One writing entirely in Mayan language (6) |
| MALLAM – ALL(entirely) inside MAM(Mayam language) | |
| 24 | How to declare £10 banknote’s value once (6) |
| TENOUR – homophone of TENNER (£10) | |
| 25 | Sweetener in US deep-fried cakes on the rise (5) |
| SIRUP – PURIS(deep-fried cakes) reversed | |
| 29 | Space travel at speed, ignoring velocity (4) |
| ROOM – VROOM(travel at speed) minus V(velocity) | |
I have another streak going, but you guys keep saying they’re on the easier side! Had conquered this by midweek, in a series of shortish forays.
My solve was similar to Sandy’s – I took it easy, and kept coming back. Every time I did, several impenetrable clues suddenly became obvious. If it had been my blog, of course, I would have been worried about finishing and pressed.
It is surprising how many obscure words you come to know – I knew gunnera, narthex, ngaio, thurifer, and ettle, so those went right in. The resulting rich menu of crossing letters made the others easier.
I wondered whether the top line “PALMER KENNER” was a tip of the hat to fellow setter Paul McKenna, who always puts a pun at the top of his Mephistos.
33ac. I hadn’t fully appreciated before this puzzle, that calling a synagogue “Temple”, is particularly a US usage (and marked as so in the dictionaries). Hence “American in his synagogue”.
Well spotted on the top line.
This was one of the easier John Grimshaw’s. He normally leaves me with a couple of clues where I’m uncertain of the wordplay. Nonetheless a very enjoyable puzzle.
Rather liked RANGOON.
ETTLE was a write-in having encounter that numerous times in John Buchan’s Witch Wood.
Like Peter W, the US usage of temple was new to me.
IIRC I finished this Monday morning having begun Sunday evening.
Rangoon: If John had been able to incorporate an indication in the lively surface story, I’m pretty sure he would have done so. In cases where the old form of a word is well known, I think such indication can be left out.
I had no particular difficulty with this, except for MALLAM. I dislike clues where the answer is an obscure word and part of the wordplay (in this case MAM) is also an obscure word, with a key letter (the first M) unchecked. I thought I would have to trawl through the dictionary, which is no fun, but managed instead to find a list of Mayan languages in Wiki – less tedious, but equally unsatisfying intellectually.
I share your dislike of this kind of clue but in this case I got lucky by thinking of Malayalam, completely unrelated but it prompted my to check MALL_M in Chambers first and hey presto! Pure fluke.
Generally I found this pretty easy for a Grimshaw.