Mephisto 2500 Mike Laws

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Mephisto
I’m doing this for Robert who is currently indisposed

Congratulations to Mephisto on reaching 2,500. I guess Mephisto had reached about number 250 when I finished my first. Throughout the standard has been high and they have given me hours of enjoyment. This is a fun puzzle, not too difficult but pleasing to do. I liked the way the figures in 2500 were handled with the clue refering to the full English word but the number going into the grid.

(C) = Chambers used to verify something (S) = starter clue

Across
1 MEPHISTO – not a difficult guess!
7 2500 – reminiscent of Times 20,000
10 NIELLO – NIEL-LO; (line)* + LO; ornamental engraving using lines; nice clue (C)
11 MISSET – MISS + E(dit) + T(ext); (S)
12 OLLA – w(ALLO)p and reversed; a jar well known in crossword circles (S)
13 NEXT,TO – NE(X)TT-O; almost is definition
14 SWISS,ROLL – SWIS(h) S(t)ROLL; take h=henry from “swish” and t=time from “stroll”
15 EN,AMI – (MANE reversed)+I; shock=hair=mane
16 EVONNE – EV(ON-N)E; on=in contact with; N=newton (unit of force)
17 EERILY – E(IRE reversed)LY; see=ELY; (S)
23 FIESTA – FIE-STA;
24 HELENA – HE-LE(N)A; (S)
26 EATEN – (b)EATEN; trite=worn out=beaten
28 OVERRIPEN – OVER-RI-PEN; RI-Rhode Island; PEN=prison in US; nice clue
29 MATICO – MA(CIT reversed)O; reference Chairman Mao; the pepper shrub
30 BRAE – BRA(v)E; remove “v”=versus from “brave”; a river bank in scotland
31 EDRICH – ED-RICH; great Middlesex and England batsman; (S)
32 HERETO – (other+e)*; object is definition (S)
33 EDNA – AND-E in reverse; (S)
34 BIRDSEED – B(dree I’s anagram)D; bd=bound; (C)
 
Down
2 EILUNED – (line due)*; a new name to me
3 PELMA – P(ELM)A; PA=a Maori fort; PELMA=sole of the foot (C)
4 ILL,WILL – (h)ILL-WILL; WILL=wull=scots for bewildered; a hill is a rising;
5 SONIC – SON-IC; (S)
6 TMESES – (meets+s)*; splitting up words (C)
7 TWOSTROKE – (two)*-S-TROKE; troke=scots barter;
8 FIVESTONES – FIVES-ONES; (S)
9 ZERO,TOLERANCE – (correlate+zone)*; (S)
12 OKEECHOBEE – OKE-ECHO-BEE; OKE=OK; ECHO=reflect; a US lake
18 RELEARN – REL-EARN; REL=relative; EARN= old word for yearn
19 INERTIA – IN-ER-TIA; ER=US TV show about hospital; TIA=aunt in Spanish
20 PIE-EYED – PI(EYE)ED; PIE=confusion in typing (C)
21 ITERATE – (l)ITERATE; l=lecturer; (S)
22 T’AI,CHI – TAI=Japenese sea bream; (C)
25 SPOHR – (HOPS reversed)+R; German composer
27 THREE – TH(RE)E; (S)

4 comments on “Mephisto 2500 Mike Laws”

  1. I had a lot of fun with this one, spotted the number thing once I got zero-tolerance for 9d. The one that held me up the most was the lake (I’m assuming it’s the one in Florida with about 30 different names).
    1. I think it must be George. There’s also a city by the same name and from Wilki I learned also a famous hurricane!
  2. Mephisto Milestone 2500 was a gem. The message in the top row was mysterious at first yet blindingly obvious at the end, and the crossing clues were just hard enough to avoid the surprise being spoiled.

    The preamble was perfectly judged. Every clue made sense as a sentence, and in fact most of the answers were familiar words.

    In short, it was the work of a real master.

    I’ll be looking at more Mephistos in the future especially by Mike.

    Thanks and congratulations.

    Paul Pridmore

  3. My most enjoyable and most sucessful so far. I twigged the missing top line pretty quickly but that isn’t to take anything away from the setter. I managed to work out all the answers from the wordplay, having to check that a few of my “guesses” were actual words. In the end I got stuck on 20d and 26a. 26a really looked like EATEN but that would mean that 20d was ?IEE?ED which looked impossible. However, Jimbo kindly gave me the invaluable hint that, in Mephistos, hyphenated words are given as (7) rather than (3-4) – thanks Jimbo.
    I don’t think I’ll be finishing 2501 – the left hand third is looking decidedly blank.

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