Mephisto 3386 – Football player and politician

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

I sometimes have trouble with Grimshaw puzzles, but this one was not particularly difficult.    There are definitely a few easy ones to get you started, and for once one across was a write-in.    Ultrarapid, etherism, and womenswear were easy anagrams and produced a lot of useful crossing letters.   I did have to look a few things up in the end, but most of it fell nicely into place.

 

Across
1 Marketplace absolutely typical of our country? (4)
SOUK – SO UK, a write-in for me.
4 Something delightful like this about Australian hotel (8)
GASTHAUS – GAS + TH(A)US.
10 What few men assume some new war is brewing (10)
WOMENSWEAR – Anagram of SOME NEW WAR.
12 Small monkey? Yes, some say small, small monkey (8)
OUISTITI – OUI + S + TITI, another monkey.
13 Peron impostor is regularly failing by that very fact (6, two words)
EO IPSO – [P]E[r]O[n] I[m]P[o]S[t]O[r].
14 British nettle tree found in the north (4)
BIRK – B + IRK.   Scots equivalent of birch.
15 Troop fuel goes missing in commotion (4)
TURM – TURM[oil]
17 Pointed observations on game being played (6)
GNOMAE –  Anagram of ON GAME.
20 Palm tree pious people of Yemen once formerly put round square (8)
PIASSABA – PI + A  (S) SABA.    To clarify the parsing, I believe PI = pious, A = ante, formerly, S = square, and SABA =  people of Yemen, once.
22 Ministers in Rome query vessel carrying waste outside Italy (8)
QUIRINAL –  Q  + U(I)RINAL.
24 Group of proteins once unknown in beer now fashionable (6)
ALEXIN – ALE  (X) IN.
25 Group of villages in revolt in South Africa (4)
ZUPA – Z(UP)A.   ZA is the country code for South Africa, since Saudi Arabia has taken SA.
26 What’s ornamental and twisted candlestick in France but not here (4)
TORC –  TORC[h].  TORC[here].   Sorry about error, I did parse this one correctly as I solved. 
28 Specifically metallic part for lighter bicycle (6)
TERBIC – Hidden in [ligh]TER BIC[ycle].   Pertaining to terbium, so highly specific.
30 Stoned hits — mere addiction (8)
ETHERISM – Anagram of HITS – MERE.
31 Lovely girl in LA, one with chaperone, unfortunately (10)
PEACHERINO – Anagram of I + CHAPERONE.   Not specific to California.
32 Understanding very up to date equipment of mine (8)
HEADGEAR – HEAD + GEAR.   Gear is UK slang for the latest and greatest.
33 Stimulant about to be concealed in cake (4)
PAAN – P(A)AN.
Down
1 Plant tare in brush by running water (8, two words)
SWEET PEA – SWEE(T)P + EA.
2 Referee’s role — I’m not sure irrational anger is what’s needed? (8)
UMPIRAGE –  UM + PI + RAGE.
3 Competition in gathering wool? (4)
KEMP –  Double definition – you could look it up.
4 Disciple turning up is after good spiritual knowledge (6)
GNOSIS – G + SON backwards + IS.
5 Traditional pity about Great Britain chasing victory — this is boxing rubbish (8)
SWING BIN – S(WIN, G.B)IN.
6 Pitched up with society heroine (4)
TESS – SET upside down + S, for a Hardy character.
7 Deerstalker perhaps has predicament, a guard around Balmoral? (6)
HATBOX – HAT + BOX, as you could be said to be in a box.
8 Take adult pair cavorting? Such a film is quickly exposed (10)
ULTRARAPID – Anagram of R + ADULT PAIR.
9 Dicky in Glasgow denying girl’s young man heroin (4)
SEIK –  S[h]EIK.
11 British and French certainly put up tax on the heartless gambling game (10)
BOUILLOTTE – B + OUI + TOLL upsidedown + Th]E.
16 Disease diabetes insipidus interrupting tiring local trip (8)
JAUNDICE – JAUN(D.I.)CE.
18 Seas holding bunch of fibre parts of jellyfish (8)
MANUBRIA – MA(NUB)RIA.
19 Fish noted for greasiness turned out lean? Ouch! (8)
EULACHON – Anagram of LEAN? OUCH!.
21 Selected extracts from missing report are outstanding (6)
EXCEED –  EXCE[rpt]ED
23 Glass engineers put up under half of roof (6)
ROEMER – RO[of] + R.E.M.E upside-down.
26 Letter, the one in Old English (4)
TETH – T’ + ETH, giving a Hebrew letter.
27 Kill strawberries with lack of air (4)
FRAG – FRAG[aria].
29 What regularly takes group rope? (4)
RURP – [g]R[o]U[p] R[o]P[e], a rather clever &lit.

15 comments on “Mephisto 3386 – Football player and politician”

  1. There were a couple I had to return to, to see how the wordplay worked. One was PIASSABA, which I believe is Pia(pious L.) Saba(people of Yemen once) S(square).
    Some rather good clues here. Learnt a lot about the history of Yemen.
    Thanks for blog.

    1. Agree with your parsing – but not sure why the clue had both once and formerly?

      1. Same here. It looks like a mistake to me – perhaps the setter or editor meant to change it from one to the other?

  2. I didn’t do this crossword. But when I lived in France, I discovered the french equivalent of saying “cheese” to get a smile for a photograph is to say “ouistiti”.

  4. 26ac: it’s “torchere” (not torch) – French for a candlestick – without “here”.
    33ac: pan = cake as a verb

    1. Agreed. ‘Cake’ for ‘pan’ (like ‘predicament’ for ‘box’ elsewhere) is one of those obscure-seeming equivalences where I just confirm it in Chambers without worrying too much about what it actually means!

  7. Incidentally, while I appreciate the idea of 29dn, it’s maybe not quite as clever as it appears. A rurp is a very small piton that is not very strong and is generally used for aid climbing, which is normally done in pairs. A group rope would more likely be associated with mountaineering, when something bigger and stronger than a rurp would be required. All the same I enjoyed seeing it, as it’s one of my favourite obscure words.

    2. If we required the setters to have complete technical knowledge of all the obscure words they use, I don’t think we would have many puzzles to solve!

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