Solving time: about 100 minutes in 4 sessions
I decided to give up bookless solving fairly early on with this one, being pretty much stuck with about 10 answers written in. Sadly, my first entry (23A) eventually turned out to be wrong.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SHOT THE CROW = go = depart – a slang expression that was new to me. SHOOT = “pull one’s cuffs out” (new again), then (E = “entrance to Eton”, C=College) in THROW2 = “a while (Spens.)”. |
| 11 | POURER – euro*, inside pr. = present. |
| 12 | PESO – p/e = “price-earnings ratio”,SO=”provided”. “Manuel’s fiver” as peso was formerly a Spanish five-peseta piece. |
| 13 | MARCATO – rev. of “a cram”, cram being old slang for “lie” (noun), TO = until |
| 14 | AFTERCROP = “second collection” – AFT, CR. in rev of pore = passage |
| 15 | Y(Fe)R.,E = “one lacking income” – I think this is ACE = one, lacking a/c = account, which is roughly “income”, but I won’t be surprised if there’s a better explanation. There is – E = “a person without regular income or on state benefit” – advertising and marketing jargon (A-D being wealthier folk). As it often is, my mistake was to look for something more complicated than necessary. Thanks to both Jimbo and the setter by e-mail. |
| 17 | TRIT(e),ON – here is Triton blowing his conch. |
| 20 | CEPS = boletus edulis mushrooms – rev. of spec = speculation = conjecture (noun) |
| 21 | VO(i)LA – “voila”, the word now exclusively owned by TV chef Raymond Blanc, means “(look) there!”. VOLA and table both mean part of the palm of the hand – I assume it’s the same part or near enough. |
| 22 | NAI = “Non-accidental injury”,A – I had at least two goes at looking for nai? words meaning “self-inflicted wound” before just looking for “nai” itself, after 19D had confirmed that the NAJA version of the snake was out of the running. |
| 23 | VIE = struggle, W=with – I had FACE as a reasonably confident “struggle with (as of problems) / appearance” double def. |
| 26 | WY(VER(y))N – WYN is “white or fair” in the “Some first names” section of C |
| 28 | HA(a)R,SH from “ships” – haar is an East coast name for sea mist, so the required Bacton is the one in Norfolk (Suffolk’s Bacton is 20 miles inland). Neither Bacton previously known to me! |
| 30 | KEEP = board (as in board and lodgings), ANA = a collection (of sayings), CT. = court. I learned from this that to ‘keep an act’ is to hold a university debate |
| 32 | RING = “bookies and runners”, (r)ENT – ringent = ‘wide open’ |
| 33 | DEEP (adv.) = profoundly – rev. of “pee” = “ease oneself”, next to D = deus = God. I first came across “ease oneself” as a euphemistic expression on a flight, when used by a very well-brought-up child of about 7 in the toilet queue. |
| 34 | CH=central heating,O=old,AN=article,A=a – “Old central heating’s leading ….” deceived me into looking up OCHANA until checkers showed the right interpretation |
| 35 | STREET = “wandering” (as in street arab, I guess), HOCKEY3 = oche = (darts) “launching site” |
| Down | |
| 2 | HO(WF – rev. of F=fine, W=woman)F – a Hof being a German manor |
| 3 | (pr.)OUST |
| 4 | O.R. = other ranks = Tommies, NER(v)Y – nervy is a “contranym”, meaning both cool and nervous. |
| 5 | TENREC = the Madagascan insectivore – hidden word |
| 6 | HEART=spirit,P,EA=(fens drainage) channel |
| 7 | (the t)ERROR – “The Terror” is a name for the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, which had the dates given in the clue (according to Chambers at least – wikipedia gives a shorter period). Not to be confused with “The horror!” from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. |
| 8 | REALTOR – US for “estate agent” – RE = note, ALTO, R=resistance – a charade that most of you should have solved instantly |
| 9 | OS = rev. of so=accordingly, TIOLE = Eliot* |
| 10 | WOOD NAPHTHA = (hadn’t a whoop)* – easy enough once you see the right kind of spirit – getting the ‘wood’ part could still leave you looking for an alternative to ‘dryad’ |
| 11 | PLAY ON = ‘continue fiddling’, W = with, ORDS = beginnings – a word I’d not seen before and one that looks like a rich source of deception. |
| 16 | S(EINE,NE)T – thought of EIN(E) early on but didn’t see the rest, failing to lift and separate “street trap” |
| 18 | HAY DIET = (they aid)*, solved here by a false route. Not knowing there was a diet invented by someone called Hay, I recalled my brother-in-law, who gives farmers advice about cattle farming, making some joke about putting his pregnant wife on a diet of hay just before she gave birth. Even if I remembered the right ingredient of this diet for pregnant cows, Chambers doesn’t mention it. |
| 19 | LIV(y),ENER = re. of Rene=Irene=”peaceful woman” – it’s that ‘SFN’ section again (corrected after comment from George) |
| 24 | WHA(p) = whop = blow,THO’ = then – “What Ho!” being a “loud hail” |
| 25 | MANI = wall (specifically a prayer wall in a Tibetan temple), O = “beginning to obstruct”, C=coloured – manioc being a plant. |
| 27 | REEVE = “pass through a hole” – RE = on = concerning, EVE |
| 29 | SCONE = a baked cake – I nearly aksed for help with the “Perth’s settlement” part, but realised in the nick of time that this is Scone as in the Stone of Scone – the village of Scone is in Perth and Kinross. |
| 31 | ARAK – hidden backwards in “”Alaska raise”, so “Up in Alaska ….” because this is a down clue. As previously grumbled, I’d be happier with “Back in Alaska ….” |
I think 15A is Y(FE)R-E where E is the socio-economic group of people with no earnings.
I enjoyed this puzzle but don’t fancy Mr Hay’s diet!
is Mephisto always a ‘plain’ barred puzzle? The reason I ask, is that I generally solve AZED ‘plains’, but struggle with ‘specials’- misprints, spoonerisms etc. It would be nice to have an alternative when AZED produces another ‘special’ I’m flummoxed with!