There was nothing very difficult for hardened Mephisto solvers here, although I was a bit slow on finishing owing to other activities. It does take me a while to think of things, but they do pop into my head eventually. For example, I was trying to think of three-letter Scottish islands, and couldn’t really come up with anything. When I returned to the puzzle, I thought of Rum at once. As we say among my old-man group, our brains are so full we can’t find any particular thing without a lot of searching.
| Across | |
| 1 | Sudden sound? Octopus isn’t disturbed (11, two words) |
| SUCTION STOP – Anagram of OCTOPUS ISN’T, a bit of phonology for you. | |
| 9 | Transport a lot of straw (4) |
| HAUL – HAUL[m]. A lot in the sense of most of the word. | |
| 11 | Dance band’s booking accepted (4) |
| GIGA – GIG + A, a variant of gigue. | |
| 12 | Reportedly performed badly attending Islamic committee (6) |
| MUFTAT – Sounds like MUFFED AT. | |
| 13 | Benin chiefs initially order bronzes are sacred (4) |
| OBAS – O[rder] B[ronzes] A[re] S[acred]. | |
| 14 | Opening out of canal end (6) |
| OFFCUT – OFF CUT – do not lift, do not separate. | |
| 15 | Seeming to believe funfair tat is frightful (10) |
| TARTUFFIAN – Anagram of FUNFAIR TAT. | |
| 17 | Item mostly frail, dodgy as support for Damocles’ sword? (8) |
| UNIFILAR – UNI[t] + anagram of FRAIL. Don’t apply mostly to frail! | |
| 20 | Stealth fighter in the first month with a number moving to the front (5) |
| NINJA – IN JAN, with the second N moving to the front. | |
| 21 | President on account of penning false story (5) |
| OBAMA – O(BAM)A. | |
| 23 | Band has what could be roaring centre of energy (8) |
| GANGLION – GANG + LION. | |
| 25 | Secret retreat, one with celebrities about (10) |
| BACKSTAIRS – BACK + STA(I)RS. A common trope in 18th-century politics, especially when paying or receiving a bribe. | |
| 27 | Bulging torso you finally developed (6) |
| TOROUS – Anagram of TORSO + [yo]U. | |
| 30 | Not entirely fashion struck in the past (4) |
| SMIT – SMIT[h]. | |
| 31 | Currency one part of Greece backed (6) |
| SOMONI – I NOMOS backwards. A nomos is defined in Chambers as a Greek house. It could mean a district in Classical Greek, but its primary meaning was law or custom. | |
| 32 | I am local autocrat (4) |
| CHAM – CH AM. Ch is a dialectal form from ich, which is normally spelt ic in Old English. | |
| 33 | A shortened selection process? No way! (4, two words) |
| AS IF – A SIF[t]. | |
| 34 | Flak UK got mixing with Trump war on values (11) |
| KULTURKAMPF – Anagram of FLAK UK + TRUMP. Another topical clue. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Printer’s tool making a dash with difficulty before modern times (13, two words) |
| SHOOTING STICK – SHOOTING + STICK, where before modern times indicates an obsolete usage. | |
| 2 | Mum’s protected by a lot of healing blood thinner (7) |
| CUMARIN – CU(MA)RIN[g]. | |
| 3 | As a joke nearly all around are found in bed (8) |
| INFAUNAL – IN F(A)UN + AL[l], for creatures from the seabed. | |
| 4 | Fragrant oil found in silky plant fibre (4) |
| OTTO – [c]OTTO[n]. | |
| 5 | Scots argue faith no longer is rising in extremist organisation (5) |
| NYAFF – N(FAY upside-down)F. The enclosing letters are the National Front. | |
| 6 | South American once invested in thallium mineral (6) |
| TINCAL – T(INCA)L. It’s always useful to know the chemical symbol for thallium. | |
| 7 | Secret police rise towards the top (4) |
| OGPU – GO UP, with each word reversed. | |
| 8 | Rule Sir John has to dismiss fellow supporting former old crook (13, two words) |
| PASTORAL STAFF – |
|
| 10 | Saint, one leading a country (7) |
| ALBANIA – ALBAN + I + A. | |
| 16 | The conclusion is to hand (5) |
| FINIS – FIN + IS. | |
| 18 | Skilful manoeuvring won as well, turning up in chess attack (8) |
| FOOTWORK – F(OOT W)ORK, where W TOO is upside down. | |
| 19 | Boys thinking of love back in Italy and its capital (7) |
| AMORINI – IN I ROMA upside-down. | |
| 22 | Theory of life simian developed before first of men (7) |
| ANIMISM – Anagram of SIMIAN + M[en]. | |
| 24 | New typeface used to inspire (6) |
| NARIAL – N + ARIAL. | |
| 26 | Chinese martial arts novice opened taking in judo regularly (5) |
| KUOYU – K([j]U[d]O) YU. | |
| 28 | US Pacific island shipbuilder abandoning navy uniform (4) |
| OAHU – [n]OAH + U. | |
| 29 | Elevated Scottish island’s mist and rain (4) |
| SMUR – RUM’S upside down. | |
LOI was SOMONI, which is not found by the Chambers Search function, so I had to do an alphabet trawl.
Didn’t get to the bottom of why “straw” was involved for HAUL. Had a “different” (i.e., wrong) theory about how the clue for CHAM works (it’s also a form of “khan,” as an “inn,” or “local”… Actually, looks like that might not be wrong, just incomplete). Well, at least I found them all!
I don’t understand the explanation here for OFFCUT. The clue for the same word in Saturday’s QC was much easier to parse. But I have to look up the two parts of the word to parse the clue. OFF can mean “Opening out of” (missed that earlier) and CUT can mean “canal” and OFF.
I had difficulty with the wordplay for OFFCUT. I don’t understand vinyl1’s explanation.
Could it be: opening = f-hole (i.e. the holes in the body of a violin) or merely F appended to OF = out from, followed by CUT = canal? I’m not convinced of my elaborate explanation for OFF, but CUT = CANAL seems too tempting to ignore. The only other thing that comes to mind is that I’m missing some cricket reference for OFF.
It’s just much simpler than it looks if you aren’t yet armed with the Chambers definitions of the two words that are thrown together to mean something that is not related to either of those two definitions.
OFF: « Opening out of »
CUT: « canal » .
Ah, so it is. How one can be so easily drawn into the rocks.
I thought I cut that “and OFF” (incomplete edit)… Too many 500 Errors.
On 8d it took me some time to come up with Falstaff for Sir John however I thought the definition was CROOK with former = PAST and O = old leaving ralstaff with F = fellow replacing R =rule.
Me too.
Sorry about that, I must have been falling asleep. Now fixed.
Did anyone get the pun? Was there one?
I only look for them from Paul McKenna. Without fail.
Brain obviously not working well this morning. I’ve muddled up the two setters here and in my comment on your blog. I should get more sleep!
Agree with Louis on 8dn – “oral” wouldn’t work, as the AL belongs to (F)alstaff.
7dn OGPU is simply a reversal of UPGO – meaning “rise” and “towards the top” indicating that it’s reversed.
Yes agreed on OGPU.
One other small point: the word ‘as’ is part of the definition for 17ac.
Like Guy, I wasn’t convinced by straw for haul, except that a haul is a load of anything and might just as well be straw. Couldn’t find anything better.
Otherwise I managed most of this without aids, except for checking that the odd unlikely collection of letters was actually a word.
I was impressed by the Grimshaw determination to present a full grid without any Es, which I think makes it a lipogram. I hope he’s pleased somebody noticed!
My goodness, didn’t notice! Quite a feat!
I had to check if it is Georges Perec’s birthday (it isn’t!).