Mephisto 2426/Tim Moorey – A Capital Puzzle

Across

1

KYLOES (LO in KY + S & lit) – just how many words for cattle are there in Chambers?

12

RERAN (hidden rev.) – “tipped” here indicates that the concealment is reversed.

13

OMRAHS (HARM in SO all rev.)

14

IRONS (RON + ‘S after I) – Ron Weasley is one of Harry Potter’s chums – Jeremy Irons the British actor.

18

ANTISTAT (ISNT* in A TAT) – “applied in a rag” didn’t work well for me in the surface reading.

19

TINSELLY (SELL in TINY) – I liked this clue a lot.  “Houses” works very well as the container indicator in a very natural surface to this clue.

21

SESEY (YESES rev.) – the single S plural of YES never looks right, but if you check Chambers you will see that YES’S (which would appear as YESS(!) in a crossword grid) is another alternative.

22

RAMISM (AMIS in RM) – another great container indicator here, “sharing” = dividing.

24

SNIRT (SKIRT with N for K)

26

STAG NIGHT (NG + A + T all rev. in SIGHT) – took me long time to parse this clue even though I knew the answer.  Didn’t expect “Dawn” as an indication of first letter.  Is its capitalization then stretching things a bit too far?  This one was good fun though.

27

WITENAGEMOT (TEN + AGE + MO in WIT) – this came up a little while ago in a Times daily puzzle didn’t it?  I seem to remember a few people being caught out by the spelling, and indeed I did write in WITAN- myself to start with!

28

XYLOSE (X + Y + LOSE)

Down

1

KSAR (SARK with K moved to top)

2

YTTERBIA (BATTERY I*) – “fancy” is a popular anagram indicator but it always sticks out like a sore thumb to me.

3

ORGANISM (I in ORGAN + S + M) – both “organ” and “rod” meaning “penis” was a hard one to spot.  That solitary “I” to mean “indeed” is not easy either.

5

THROSTLE (R in HOLES + T + T*) – tricky to spot the anagram fodder here.  I am sure that Ian Woosnam is a “Woosie” rather than “Woozy”, but I think we can forgive the setter using a bit of poetic license.

6

HAOMA (O in AMAH rev.) – this was a new drink to me, certainly not one I have sampled.

7

METASTASIS (M.E. + TASTe + AS IS) – another tricky clue to parse.

8

CORSETRY (CORSE + TRY) – lovely clue this one – CORSE is an old form of “corpse” = “stiff” to provide a very convincing and economic surface.

10

GROUND MAIL (i.e. MAIL “ground” could give MALI)

14

INTERSEX (IN + TERSE + X)

17

CAMEROON (O in CAMERON) – David Cameron gets a mention.

20

ESNES (SENSE rev.)

25

TITO (TIT +O) – I cannot remember seeing “bull” = O before, but “O” is defined as anything round and it certainly does look like a bull’s-eye.  This is the Tito in question.