Mephisto 2480 – Tim Moorey, the setter with a bottom fetish?

Author   the_odPosted on Categories Mephisto

Solving time: about 30m

Apologies for missing the Sunday post – the 7 day turnaround for Mephistos (from solve to blog) keeps catching me out – good job I checked the calendar today!

I managed to crack through this puzzle fairly quickly, getting stuck on a few (like SITHE) at the end.  This was helped greatly by the fact that 2A went in immediately!  Regular Mephisto fans will surely remember Tim clueing this very same word some months ago (No. 2444 on July 1 2007, in fact), and I recall commenting on the clue in detail at the time which was, “Boasting pretty duff reform legacy, Blair marches off and power with Brown, finally”.  Now I still think the definition utilized there would take some beating, but overall I feel Tim has come up with a much better treatment for this cracking word!  It must be a deliberate decision to incorporate the word again – after all it is the first clue, so it’s not a case of painting yourself into a corner – so did Tim have the two ideas at the time and feel them too good to waste?  Or did he just revisit the word and take a fresh approach?

Will we see any more of CALLIPYGEAN in future I wonder?    

Across

2

CALLIPYGEAN (NIGELLA + Cook,And,Youre,Putty*) – now I wonder which meaning of rump is intended for the surface!?

11

PANIM (PAN + IMam) – makes a change to see IMAM being employed other than “I’m a leader of Muslims”!

13

NANNA (N + ANNA) – Anna Ford the newsreader.

14

PANDORE (PAN + DO,RE) – DO plus RE that come before ME was nice.

15

DRESSER (PRESSER with D for P)

18

ERICAS (ERIC + AS) – nice to see a setter that acknowledges MORECAMBE does not equal ERIC hence the “maybe”.

20

SWARAJ (A + R in JAWS rev.) – my first thought for “thriller movie” was JAWS, but I never guessed that J would end up fitting in!

22

SCARPA (SCAR + PA) – this alternative spelling of SCARPER was new to me.

24

SHEILA (HE in ISLA*) – share2 means “to cut,cleave”, hence indicating containment.

25

THRUST HOE (THRU + THOSE*) – I liked the wordplay here, very neat.

29

WARBECK (WAR + BECK) – Perkin is the Warbeck.

30

ARRAYAL (RAY in LARA rev.) – spent a little time looking at BRIAN (or CROFT) for LARA, but as per MORECAMBE above, I should have realized that Tim would have put a “perhaps” in to support that.  “Note that’s second” was helpful in locating the right note.

31

SITHE (SaITHE) – last one to go in – neither word used was known to me.

33

WEET (sWEET)

 

Down

1

WINDLESTRAW (ITS DARNEL* in WatermeadoW) – I am pretty sure that Tim has also clued this word in another recent Mephisto.

2

CRARE (CuRARE) – yet another vessel added to my vocab!

5

IMPELS (IMP + ELSe) – spurs placed at the front of the clue to disguise its non-capitalization as the definition.

7

GADIDAE (G + A + DID + AE) – ae. = aged is a pretty common device used for these couple of awkward letters.

8

ENOKI (I + KONE rev.) – tricky one to spot – Kone is a company that manufactures lifts.

9

AIRE (pAIREd)

12

MESS JACKETS (MES + JACK in SETS) – Mes is a shortened form of master.

19

CRUSADE (CAUSED Riot*) – good choice of anagram indicator to fit the surface.

21

RIVETER (TE in RIVER) – just “note” for TE this time.

23

ATWAIN (AT + WAIN) – the Laos currency (1 kip = 100 at) is becoming a very hackneyed device very quickly!

28

KROO (“crew”) – this word always seems to be clued this way!

 

 

 

 

One comment on “Mephisto 2480 – Tim Moorey, the setter with a bottom fetish?”

  1. I agree there was a strange feeling of having seen quite a lot of this puzzle in a previous existance. I prefer the latest rump if only because Nigella is so much more attractive. I had to research Kone, never having heard of it.

    Why, I wonder, are these crosswords not available on the website on Sunday? This one didn’t appear until Tuesday and this week’s until Monday. Jimbo.

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