I’m standing in for Robert.
Whilst not in the very top league of difficulty this is not an easy puzzle. The liberal number of starter clues is offset by a need to make extensive use of Chambers both for answers and to understand parts of clues. I have given references in Chambers where appropriate. The fact that this applies to both key lights 1A and 5A adds to the complexity. However 1D is straightforward and that gives a reasonable start.
For new solvers (C) = Chambers used to verify part of a clue (S) = starter clue (see tips and tricks on this site)
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SAMIT – S(A-M)IT; press=SIT; are=A; money=M; see “Saam” in Chambers, plural form SAMIT=Lapps; finding this in Chambers was difficult but I used Britannica to get an alternative spelling, see Lapps In the clue I can’t explain the “a” before “Lapps”. It detracts from the surface reading and is not in the wordplay, unless I’m missing something; |
| 5 | LATRANT – LA(D)-TRANT; wanting=lacking D=day; TRANT=to hawk (see “tranter” in Chambers); see “latration” in Chambers for LATRANT=barking (always explore the Chambers entries that lie around the search area); |
| 10 | PROTOAVIS – (paris+TV+o+o)*; hit=anagrind; a bird of the Triassic period; (C) |
| 11 | ATOCS – (SCOT-A all reversed); ATOC=atok=a species of skunk (smelly creatures) or the Association of Train Operating Companies, according to how you see these things; (C) |
| 12 | GDANSK – G(oo)D+A(ndalusia)N+S(ac)K; nice clue; (S) |
| 14 | SERICITE – S(ERIC)ITE; fine=ERIC=old Irish blood-fine; soapy mica; (C) |
| 15 | CLOY – C-(a)L-OY; evasive=COY; faceless Al=L; CLOY=Spencer’s word for gore (ignore the capital); (C) |
| 16 | HEID – HI(E)D; nut=head; Scots word for head; (S) |
| 17 | ENRAPTURE – (put near)*-RE; RE=Royal Engineers=soldiers; marshal=anagrind; not a door but a state of mind; nice clue; |
| 20 | ISINGLASS – IS-IN-GLASS; mirror=glass; muscovite=white mica=ISINGLASS; (C) |
| 23 | JUAN – (anjou minus “o”)*; Anjou is part of the Loire Valley famous for rose wine; JUAN is a Spanish name; am I missing something? (S) |
| 24 | BLET – B-LET; what follows a=B; LET=old word (=traditionally) for delay; decay in fruit; (C) |
| 26 | ARTESIAN – (abstainer less “b”=bass)*; type of well studied in O Level physics circa 1956; (S) |
| 28 | GOTCHA – GOT-C(lue)-H(ere)-A; understood=GOT; across=A; (S) |
| 29 | FANON – (M changed to F)ANON; Manon=the opera; the Pope’s cape; see “fanion” in Chambers; (C) |
| 30 | CAMEO,PART – CAME-O-PART(ly); did issue=CAME; duck=O; partly=some; short guest appearance in a film; |
| 31 | RED-EYES – REDE-YES; REDE=old word for resolution; indeed=YES; effect seen in my poor flash photography; (C) |
| 32 | REIMS – (regiments less “gent”)*; (S) |
| Down | |
| 1 | SPANCEL – SPAN-CEL; stretch over=SPAN; celebrated=CEL; to hobble (C) (S) |
| 2 | ARTEL – (c)ARTEL; a less well known meaning of “cartel”; a Russian workers guild; nice clue; (C) |
| 3 | ITCH – IT-CH; have ones greens=old slang for have sex=IT; child=CH; nice clue (C) |
| 4 | TOSSUP – (spouts)*; about=anagrind; (S) |
| 5 | LACERTILIA – L(ACE)RT-ILIA; left=L; right=RT; one=ACE; ILIA=plural of “ilium” a hip bone; lizards (C) |
| 6 | TIDIER – T(ID)IER; trig=neat and trim so “trigger”=TIDIER; nicely misleading clue; (C) |
| 7 | ANNIE,HALL – (inane)*-HA(ha)-LL; jolly is anagrind; L=line; HA=laughter not half; nice clue; (S) |
| 8 | NASTIES – N-A-STIES; number=N; accepted=A; (S) |
| 9 | TOKED – T(OKE)D; TD=Teachta Dala (deputy to the Dail); OKE=OK; slang for puff a spliff; |
| 12 | GROUNDAGES – GROUND(AGE)S; a charge on a ship in port (see “ground-1” in Chambers); (S) |
| 13 | FORMATTED – FOR(MATTE)D; MATTE=a kind of mask (3rd definition in Chambers); (C) |
| 18 | NEURONE – N-EUR-ONE; name=N; Europe=EUR; reference “motor neurone”; (S) |
| 19 | OSTENTS – O(STENT)S; day’s work=stint=STENT; OSTENTS=old word (veteran) for appearances (see ostensible in Chambers) |
| 21 | SASHAY – SAS(H)AY; an excursion; (S) |
| 22 | GUN,FOR – G(UN)FOR; (frog)* surrounding UN; UN=dialect (local) for one (also “him” by the way); (C) |
| 23 | JAGIR – JAG-IR; slash=JAG; Iran=IR; government revenue in India and Pakistan (see “jaghir” in Chambers); |
| 25 | ENORM – (MR-ONE all reversed); an obsolete (forgotten) word for enormous=atrocious; (C) |
| 27 | PAPE – PAPE(r); The Scotsman=paper; Scots word for The Pope (S) |
After my previous comments about the paraphernalia required to solve a Mephisto, I decided to limit myself to my copy of Chambers only (no internet searches), and to use it only for checking answers and not to trawl through it for words. From my notes I only had to check 11 words.
I missed 2 letters, having SA?IT at 1 and ?LET at 24, having failed to see the obvious pointer to “B”!
I still don’t see any “first letter” indicator for A(re) M(oney) in 1, and I assumed that the ungrammatical “a Lapps” must be significant. I am not going to be too hard on myself for not getting this!
In 1dn, “to spancel = to hobble” is a transitive verb, whereas in the definition “walk awkwardly = to hobble” is intransitive. As you say, the clue was easy enough but, is that considered acceptable?
I saw 23ac the same as you; I suppose “me” just indicates any person, but I’m not sure it’s terribly satisfactory.
1A is a difficult clue so I agree, no self flagilation. No “fist letter” indicators are needed. If you look in Chambers at “A” you’ll see it means “are”, likewise for “M” and money. The use of these little known one letter substitutions is so common in bar crosswords that shortly after I started I read through Chambers looking at every single letter from A to Z and wrote myself a list to keep with me when solving. As I’ve said I don’t understand that floating “a” and fear it’s a typo.
I don’t really see 23A either. I looked up JUAN to see if it could mean Tim (Moorey) but it only means John. 1D doesn’t worry me but I’m not as well versed in these things as you are.
You may find confining yourself to Chambers a bit limiting. We had no Internet when I started but I used to decamp to the library with Ximenes when I got stuck!
Perhaps other solvers know most of these words better than I do. For me part of the pleasure is in using the wordplay to generate a word that you didn’t know – and lo and behold there it is in the dictionary meaning just what you hoped it would. But if you know neither the elements of the wordplay nor the eventual solution it’s just a bloody slog!
I saw little elegance in this one and the awfully worded 1A just made me cross! The setter clearly knows an awful lot about Mica (I thought he played for Man City!) but as far as I knew isinglass was a gelatinous substance from a sturgeon’s bladder that you put in beer to settle the sediment.
I also agree about the weakness of Juan.
But looking back some of the solutions were really nice – it’s just a shame that the bad ones pr4ejudiced me against the whole puzzle!
miles3659
Yes, I probably do know a lot more of these obscure words than you do – I’ve been doing these puzzles for over 40 years – but I didn’t when I started. It’s like many human activities, you have to work at it. And you have the blogs on this site which will cut your learning time hugely.
Tim’s Mephisto Checker
None of those points made any difference to my enjoyment of the puzzle.
I must just have been having a bad week!
miles3659
“In a mess” is the anagrind – i.e. use the letters of REIMS in exactly the same order to create a new word!