Mephisto 3394 – Hope and pray!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

The puzzle itself was of moderate difficulty, and I solved it over a couple of days.    Somehow, the answers kept coming to me, and I was able to parse them all without calling for assistance.   It is rather surprising when a word like kvass just pops into your head – is that a thing?   And morrises – another word I know, and this time I know what it means.

However, the problems we’re having at TftT, plus the problems on the Crossword Club and newspaper, are making blogging difficult.   The answers given here are my answers, not the ones taken from the official Times site, because the answer page for this puzzle is blank.   So it is possible that there might be an incorrect, or mistyped, answer in this blog, but everything seems fit and parse.

Across
1 Rye beer vessel amongst empty kegs (5)
 KVASS – K(VAS)S, where the enclosing letters are K[eg]S.
7 Excellent entertainment, core ingredient of jamborees? (5)
 BOFFO – BOFF + [jamb]O[rees].
12 Bumbling a lot in all childish speech? (9)
 LALLATION – Anagram of A LOT IN ALL.
13 Arsenal’s wingers set upon sacrificial block (5)
 ALTAR – A[rsena]L + TAR.
14 Source of riches I’d try moving after settlement (7, two words)
 PAY DIRT – PA + anagram of I’D TRY.    A Maori settlement, that is.
15 Country girl sources folk dances (8)
 MORRISES – MOR + RISES.
16 Bampots bet on rustic game (8)
 GOMERILS – GO + MERILS, which is indeed a rustic game.
19 Heavy blow stokes Scottish lord (5)
 SLOSH – S + LOSH, watch out for those physics abbreviations!
20 Suggestion of estate, go and tax ploughed area of land (6)
 OXGATE – Anagram of E[state] + GO + TAX.
21 What initiates attributes? Chromosome’s helping (6)
 AIDANT – A + IDANT.
23 Charlie to share a room with Penny (5)
 CHUMP – CHUM + P.
25 A fizzy drink’s packing energy virtually (8, three words)
 AS GOOD AS – A S(GO)ODA’S.
27 Returning couch that hurts back to furniture outlet (8)
DEBOUCHE – BED backwards + OUCH + [furnitur]E.
30 Squashed by newspaper, sad end for poor bluebottle (7)
 BLAWORT – BLA(WO,[poo]R)T.   My nomination for the toughest answer, with an obscure word clued by more obscure words.
31 Marsupial in reserve with short beak (5)
 BILBY – BIL[l] + BY.
32 Possibly bitter about dispute — not right output from RI? (9)
 AQUARELLE – A(QUAR[r]EL)LE.   RI = Royal Institute of Water Colour Painters, apparently.
33 In Scotland nimble old mare’s lapping loch (5)
 YAULD – YAU(L)D.
34 Woodcutter’s tools for splitting bark from elms? (5)
 PROES – PRO + E(lm)S.   FROES – Anagram of FOR + E(lm)S.
Down
1 Complex tone exuding Canadian singer’s depth? (5)
 KLANG – K [d] LANG.   I wasn’t expecting to meet her here!
2 Red can counter the law lying about everything (12)
 VALPOLICELLA – LAV upside-down + POLICE + ALL upside-down.
3 High fashion evolves a lot, madam spending millions (8, two words)
 ALTA MODA – Anagram of A LOT MADA[m].
4 North stopping to decide, South’s returned spades (6)
 SLANES – SE(N)AL + S, all upside-down.  As in seal the deal, or something along those lines.
5 Into past acting in readiness for Shakespeare (8, two words)
 AT POINTS – Anagram of INTO PAST.
6 One in shop put back head-ornament (4)
 TIAR – RA(I)T upside-down.
8 Sudden precipitation perhaps uniting Britain’s left? (6)
 ONDING – [b]ONDING.
9 Irish assembly that is accepted by Sinn Fein recalled (4)
 FEIS – S(I.E.)F, all upside-down.
10 Limestone table’s right for me unusually (12, two words)
 FOREST MARBLE – Anagram of TABLE’S R FOR ME.
11 What makes pets walk ahead? (7)
 OUTSTEP – OUT STEP, a reverse cryptic.
17 Nothing stopping ex-con back in parish to become darker member of flock? (8) 
 LOAGHTAN – L(O)AG + [paris]H + TAN.
18 Acoustic device picking up lines by Catholic head of state (8)
 CAUDILLO – C + AUDI(LL)O.
19 No date on buyer’s option in report one’s happy in saying (7)
 SANDBOY – SA(N.D. + B.O.)Y.   A rather allusive literal, but it’s in Chambers.
22 I for one uttered frank confession (6)
 AVOWAL –  Sounds like A VOWEL.
24 I keep stocking hard willow (6)
 HOSIER – H + OSIER, one of the few easy ones in this Mephisto.
26 Openings for sleeves, correct indeed! (5)
 SCYES – S[leeves], C[orrect] + YES.   A very nice &lit.
28 Malaysian wanting a short jacket (4)
 BAJU – BAJ[a]U.
29 Cross about part of sauce spilling over? (4)
 CRUX – C + R[o]UX.

13 comments on “Mephisto 3394 – Hope and pray!”

  1. Moderate difficulty indeed,
    I’m not convinced that 13ac works. To my mind ‘set upon’ means to attack, whereas TAR appears to mean to incite to attack. It’s not entirely clear from Chambers because both terms are defined by ‘set on’, which can mean either!
    In 20ac ‘ploughed’ must be the anagrind, rather than part of the definition, otherwise there isn’t one!

    1. Doesn’t ‘ploughed’ work both as the anagrind and part of the definition? I think we has something like that in last weeks Sunday Times cryptic, which Sandy explained as &lit. Isn’t this partially &lit?

      1. Most of the wordplay has nothing to do with the definition, even at a stretch, so it’s not an &lit.
        Cryptic clues sometimes have an element that isn’t necessarily part of the definition, if you strictly separate that from the wordplay, but yet has a resonance with the definition or could even be part of it. Chambers does say that OXGATE is a part of ploughland. But we must have an anagrind!

    1. agreed.

      Is there another case where the anagrind (tools) serves also as part of the definition?

      There an excellent youtube clip of a guy making chestnut roofing shingles using a froe to cut the shingles radially from a complete log.

      1. Seems to me that “splitting” is the anagrind acting on FOR, though it seems to want to mislead you into thinking that the answer is E(FOR)S.
        I didn’t get around to working this Mephisto, but I always study them. PROE isn’t a word!

        2. Agree with that. I thought the toughest answer, in terms of obscure word clued by another obscure word, was 28dn. I’ve never heard of either BAJU or Bajau and had to resort to the dictionary (which I think is unacceptable). At least in 30ac, it’s fairly easy to guess the O as the only unchecked letter, even if you haven’t come across WO (for woe) before.
          Apologies for late comment – I hadn’t realised the site had been fixed.

          1. Regarding using a dictionary, Mephisto is different in that no one is really expected to work it without recourse to Chambers (though it is sometimes done!). Everything should be checked in Chambers anyway.

            1. Checking in Chambers is half the fun, and necessary to confirm whether an answer is correct or not, especially when variant spellings are involved.

              1. Agreed also. I love the fact that the English language is so rich. It’s a pleasure to see some of these exotic examples see the light of day. It’s even more a pleasure when you know the word.
                I am particularly fond of the dialect words, which have an important cultural place in our language.
                Bring them on, is what I say.
                I have to say that I’m less fond of references that can’t be found in Chambers, particularly when it comes to popular music of which I know very little. But I’m not going to complain – yet.

Comments are closed.