Greetings, barred-grid fans.
While solving this (with all apologies to vinyl1), I was reminded of my fellow Mephisto blogger for many years, Dorsetjimbo, who really relished Mephistos that were of fiendish difficulty. I think he would approve wholeheartedly of this tricky offering by John Grimshaw, and I agree. This is a fine Mephisto where the wordplay needs to be finely pored in order to put almost every entry into the grid. Entirely fair – the wordplay is immaculate, the clues are concise but all make perfect sense, and the result is a fine Sunday brain tease.
Now to unravel it all (I hope) for the weekly report.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | What helps one scrape in charcoal (4) |
| ARCO – hidden in chARCOal – an instruction to use the bow of a stringed instrument | |
| 5 | Evil teacher beset by regret (7) |
| PRAVITY – RAV(Rabbi, teacher) inside PITY(regret) | |
| 11 | Mostly slow to learn, give up the French, Chinese and English course for Spanish speakers (12, three words) |
| DULCE DE LECHE – DULL(slow to learn) without the last letter, then CEDE(give up), LE(the in French), CH(Chinese), and E(English) | |
| 12 | What’s well boring about relative? Bad luck for some (9) |
| MISAUNTER – MISER(an instrument that can be used to bore) containing AUNT(relative) | |
| 14 | Sly look about German collier that was dishonest (5) |
| LEGER – LEER(sly look) surrounding G(German) | |
| 16 | Contractor burying pipe in relaid road (8) |
| ADDUCTOR – DUCT(pipe) inside an anagram of ROAD. Contractor as in a muscle. | |
| 18 | Country bird you once found around city’s centre (4) |
| YITE – YE(you, once) surrounding the middle letters of cITy | |
| 19 | Had a meal which was light (4) |
| TEAD – double definition, the first being for TEA’D | |
| 20 | A broad branch flowing round river in Congo (5) |
| EBOLA – A, LOBE(broad branch) all reversed | |
| 23 | Standard style of architecture lacking a name (5) |
| NORMA – NORMAN architecture minus one N(name) | |
| 24 | Bland food in US cut by government (4) |
| GLOP – LOP(cut) next to G(government) | |
| 25 | Large birds in Scotland range over to the west (4) |
| RUCS – SCUR(Scots for range) reversed, variant of ROCS | |
| 27 | Novel Mort soon to be rewritten (8) |
| NOSTROMO – anagram of MORT,SOON for the Conrad novel | |
| 30 | Forward a lot of Georgian currency, coin which Euro replaced (5) |
| TOLAR – TO(forward) and then LARI(Ceorgian currency) minus the last letter | |
| 31 | One concerned with artist about plunder of old Peruvian art (9) |
| ARPILLERA – A(one), RE(concerned with), RA(artist) surrounding PILL(old form of PILLAGE, plunder) | |
| 32 | Preparatory study for quiet étude composed in A I see (12) |
| PROPAEDEUTIC – PRO(for), P(quiet) then an anagram of ETUDE inside A, I, C(see) | |
| 33 | Terrible gale in short film of the open sea (7) |
| PELAGIC – anagram of GALE inside PIC(short film) | |
| 34 | Those Scots turn huffy about English at the outset (4) |
| THAE – first letters of Turn Huffy About English | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Praise eccentricity after academician dressed in blue (7) |
| ADULATE – E(eccentricity) after A(Academician) inside ADULT(blue) | |
| 2 | Plan for fighting usurer drunk with base greed (12, three words) |
| RUSE DE GUERRE – anagram of USURER, E(base) and GREED | |
| 3 | Clattering music CD’s fine inside at any time at Hogmanay (9) |
| CLOGDANCE – CD containing LOG to fine, then ANCE(Scots form of at any time) | |
| 4 | Fish rise all over the place (4) |
| SEIR – anagram of RISE | |
| 6 | Trick that was wildly unusual with fellow disappearing (4) |
| REAK – FREAK(wildly unusual) minus F(fellow) | |
| 7 | US plant chimney some say is in a fix (8) |
| ALUM-ROOT – LUM(chimney) inside A, ROOT(fix) | |
| 8 | Envy running around east Stratford location (5) |
| VENEY – anagram of ENVY surrounding E(east) – Shakespearean version of VENUE | |
| 9 | What’s starting to agitate EU country badly wanting to go by stages? (12) |
| THEATROMANIA – T(the first letter of To), HEAT(agitate), ROMANIA(EU country) | |
| 10 | Quickly move somewhere past the two pieces involved in castling (4) |
| YERK – YE(The in the past), then R and K (Rook and King, the two pieces involved in castling in chess) | |
| 13 | Check about Australian being in Indo-European language group (5) |
| SATEM – STEM(check) surrounding A(Australian) | |
| 15 | Calculus — oh, is it all integrating? (9) |
| SIALOLITH – anagram of OH,IS,IT,ALL. Reminds me I have a dental appointment in a week | |
| 17 | What Dame Edna loved, something hackneyed to draw attention to (8) |
| CORNFLAG – CORN(something hackneyed), FLAG(draw attention to). Dame Edna, the Barry Humphries character, was a big fan of gladioli. I went to the same University as Barry Humphries (albeit 50 years later) and his exploits were quite revered around campus. | |
| 21 | Bottom giving home to small fish (5) |
| BASSE – BASE(home) surrounding S(small) | |
| 22 | Medicine of value once containing oxygen (7) |
| OPORICE – O(of), PRICE(archaic word for value) containing O(oxygen) | |
| 26 | Grass shoot is covered in it (5) |
| STIPA – TIP(shoot) inside SA(it) | |
| 28 | Talk about printer’s top limp binding (4) |
| YAPP – YAP(talk) surrounding the first letter in Printer | |
| 29 | 500 bani? This would have liquidity in rand (4) |
| VLEI – 100 bani is a LEI, so 500 bani would be V LEI | |
| 30 | Coin formerly used head of the Spanish king (4) |
| TREY – first letter of The, then REY(Spanish king) | |
1A: Arco is also the bow itself as the Chambers definition here. English speakers rarely see it outside of music notation, like “piano” which has broader meanings in Italian.
3D reminds me of another fondly remembered solver – Tony Sever did some folk dancing.
That was hard! Thought I wasn’t going to finish but got there in the end. Last two entered were SATEM and EBOLA which were interlocking. SATEM was particularly hard to discover.
My understanding of the wordplay agrees with yous – thank you George.
I rather enjoyed VLEI for its ingenuity and SIALOLITH for its surface reading.
I’m not clear about “rand” in 29dn. According to my (rather elderly) Chambers, vlei is “low-lying ground where a shallow lake forms in the wet season”, while rand is “a ridge overlooking a valley”. That would suggest a vlei would not be found in (or on) a rand. Unless it really means Rand – but deceptive non-capitalisation is generally frowned upon? (Rand can also mean a border or margin, but that doesn’t have the South African – or even land – connotation.)
While I’m being pedantic, “Congo” (20ac) usually refers to the Republic of Congo, whereas the Ebola river is in the DRC.
I think you have a point regarding vlei: The latest Chambers says the rand is the ridge overlooking the valley, potentially a vlei
Not sure what you mean by ‘deceptive non-capitalisation’: currencies (if that’s what you’re referring to?) are not normally capitalised.
The clue says “This [ie VLEI] would have liquidity in rand” – so it can’t be referring to the currency? Either it means a ridge overlooking a valley, in which case it’s not where you would find a vlei (that being low-lying ground) or it means the Rand, which is a nickname of the Witwatersrand goldfield (according to my Chambers), which should be capitalised. But maybe a more recent Chambers gives another definition that applies?
Ah sorry I missed that definition in Chambers. You’re right the currency wouldn’t make any sense. There’s nothing in the most recent Chambers that suggests anything different so I think you’re right.
I found this hard but unlike richard above I never quite had the feeling that I was going to give up on it. A good challenge.
14 Across is it collier meaning a coal miner?
Collier definition 4 in Chambers – one who deals in coal or charcoal. Hence collier a dishonest dealer.
Thanks Richard I can find no reference to leger meaning dishonest miner
Chambers:
leger (1) (obsolete slang)
1. Someone who sells short weight in charcoal [Leger or, in French, léger means “light,” of course]
2. Someone who swindles by scamping* work, using bad materials
Selling short weight is cheating.
[* Scamp (2) To do or execute perfunctorily or without thoroughness]
Thank you Guy