Mephisto 2969 – Tim Moorey

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Mini story time… I’m in a production of Fiddler on the Roof right now (as soon as I get this written I’m heading to the theatre) and we have been doing a Sunday matinee – I suspect at the time most Mephisto buffs are reading this I will be in that final matinee. Anyhoo, last Sunday I brought this puzzle with me, and solved it during breaks in the show. I didn’t have Chambers but I used my phone to look up a few definitions.

I thought I had it all completed and was feeling good about myself. Then I came back to look at it and there is a missing cell – the final letter in 4 down. Aaaah well this can’t be too bad, it is just one letter. I eventually caved and resorted to Google as I had no idea who the person was in the wordplay. Tim Moorey seems to slip in a bit of pop culture that is outside of my ken, and he did it again!

Away we go…

Across
1 EVESHAM: EVE’S and HAM. This one went in with a shrug, but a little reading up on EVESHAM and it is near Broadway in the Cotswalds
6 SERRA: ARRES(t) reversed
10 CANTANKEROUS: anagram of NOT,AN,A,SUCKER
11 ANDANTINO: A, N, DANT(e), IN, O
14 CATO: CAT(chap), O(ratory)
15 TITLES: hidden in studenT IT LESson
16 ERINYS: anagram of SYRINGE less G
17 LEAP SECOND: LEAP(bound) next to SECOND(supporter)
20 STAYCATION: O inside IN after T in SAY,CA
22 SIRIHS: SIR(gentleman), and an anagram(buggy) of HIS
24 ALGOID: GO(ready) in A, LID
25 STIG: S(alt) with the game of TIGgy for a Scandinavian name
28 ANTIPASTI: AN, TIP(upset), ASTI(wine)
29 PATERNOSTERS: anagram of SENT,REPORTS surrounding A(advanced)
30 SNARY: NARY(never) after S(cotch)
31 SNEER AT: RAT(strike breaker) after SNEE(cut)
 
Down
1 ECARTES: SET(regular) and RACE(competition) reversed – ballet positions
2 ENDS: (b)ENDS – bowling in this case being lawn bowls –
my grandparents on my mothers side were very much into that game
3 STANLEY: the knife and the capital of the Falkland Islands
4 HANK: my last in, a ring for a sail, and I now know that HANK Marvin is the guitarist for the Shadows
5 ANTISPAST: did a double take seeing this and ANTIPASTI in the same grid – it’s a poetic foot. ANTI(one’s against), S(ocialism), PAST(after)
6 SENOR: remove I from SENIOR
7 ROMANO: ROMANOV missing the V
8 RUSTY NAIL: RUSTY(not one’s best), NAIL(fix)
9 ASBO: AS(for instance), BO(g)
12 DIETITIAN: anagram of INITIATED
13 GESTATION: G(ladston)E and Victoria STATION. I did not know this archaic meaning of the word (transportation by coach)
18 COGNATE: CO(firm) then an anagram of AGENT
19 DADAIST: DAD(thump – new one to me), A, (f)IST
21 ARISTA: anagram of RASTA,I
23 HENRY: I may be missing something in the wordplay,
but my take on it is that the letter H refers to the unit of inductance henry, so the first letter of the king’s name means the same as the whole name?
25 SEPS: SEPSIS(putrefaction, rotting) missing IS
26 APSE: sounds like APPS
27 USER: half of CAROUSER

3 comments on “Mephisto 2969 – Tim Moorey”

  1. This was the most straightforward Mephisto I can remember – a lot of familiar words, and fairly unambiguous wordplay for the rest. I had a cassette of one of The Shadows’ albums in the late ’70s but I’m not sure I could deal with 45m of twanging in one sitting these days. I think the parsing of 23D is that HANK is a diminutive of HENRY and is “right at the top” of the same column.
  2. My explanation of HENRY was the same as mohn2 – a reference to HANK above HENRY in the puzzle

    Very easy puzzle. EVESHAM a lovely part of the world – worth a visit.

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