Mephisto 2535 – Paul McKenna

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
I found this one a real stinker, most of it was in areas that I wasn’t familiar with, and after my customary ripping through about a third of the grid, to get the last ten or so required some real plodding through Chambers and a few guesses at wordplay. Not a lot of words that I think will be re-entering the vocabulary from this one.

Across
3 IVY-MANTLED: Anagram (LIT being the indicator) of LEVANT,DIMLY less L
10 AT,TEST: Was this a week out? The first Test between India and New Zealand was played in Hamilton from March 18-21
12 REARLY: wordplay is REAR(seat) then L(ad)Y
13 GUM,P: Could possibly be BUM,P
16 SNOEK: SN, then E in OK, another spelling of SNOOK, ugly fish #1 for the week
17 MY,THIS,T
19 PORRECT: REC (take, as in receipt) in PORT
24 HEAVE-HO: E in HAVE(con), HO(stop). I had HEAVE TO for a long time in here
28 TEXEL: I think it’s TE(st) on LEX reversed
31 SILD: Ugly fish #2. I think the wordplay is SI(IS backwards), then L(ea)D – the watercourse leading to a mill
32 BROOSE: O in BROSE, boiling water on peasemeal, seasoned with salt and butter… ummm, yum?
33 DROMOS: DRAMAS with the A’s (are) changed to O
34 CICUTA: CUT in CIA (Italian for company)
 
Down
1 HARUSPIECES: (RAHU)*,SPICES
2 STERN,O: a jellied alcohol
4 VERDERER: VER(y), then R in DEER
5 YSL,AKED: YSL is Yves St Laurent
8 LOUR,IE: a turaco
9 E,NME’S,H: New Music Express in the middle there
14 PETROLHEAD: PET (girlfriend) then O in (HERALD)* – common term in Australia in the 70’s for someone who venerated V8s
18 HAVE,LOCK: named after a 19th century general
22 SHAIRN: HAIR (obsolete word for type) in SN – tin putting in two appearances this week. Dung!
23 CARLOT: L for R in CARROT – a term used by Shakespeare in “As You Like It” for a peasant
25 HEASTE: E in HASTE and took care of my mistake at 24
27 I,G,LOO(=can): this one raised a smile
30 NOUS: “we” in French

12 comments on “Mephisto 2535 – Paul McKenna”

  1. I didn’t quite finish this, missing 25, 28 and 32. I don’t allow myself electronic searches and try not to trawl the dictionary, so the double obscurity at 32 was a bit hard. AT 28 I got TE(st) but missed the LEX bit.

    At 13 I thought of BUM+P, but BUMP=fool doesn’t seem to work (despite “bumpkin”). I think GUM= cheek (insolence) is clearly what is intended.

    I don’t know about “ugly fish” – that snook looks pretty good!

  2. I thought this one was medium-hard. For 26ac (Queen with cry of joy getting in visit to ride in carriage) I put chariot, but I can’t follow the wordplay. Carriage, yes, cry of joy + queen, yes, but where does the CIOT come from?

    Petrolhead btw is still a common term here in the UK for anyone so retarded as to be like the infantile buffoon Clarkson and his ilk of irresponsible 2-wheel cornerers

  4. Like jerrywh I thought this about par for the course in terms of difficulty. I don’t think “bump” works at 13A but agree GUMP. At 26A I also had it as CHA(R-IO)T. I thought Hamilton CC a tad obscure and couldn’t see where the “today” came in but with “attes” in place there weren’t many other options! Nothing really stood out as being very good.
  5. My notes tell me that I wrote the clues for this puzz in January; while in cricketing mode I remember Googling for the date of publication and finding the NZ v India Test… it seemed a good opportunity! Did the date of the Test change? However I now realise the fault therein… a lesson learnt and there shall be no more such conceits (Ch. s.v. ‘witty thought’).

    gum 1, second def = insolence (old slang) whence ‘cheek’: I hope that wasn’t too gummy!

    Being something of a petrol-head I shall extend JerryWh the same generosity which you have all shown me during my first year as a Meff 😉

    McK

    2. Hmm, good thing I kept my comment to the neutral version then 🙂

      But anyway well done Paul, the Mephisto and the Times cryptic are the two crosswords I enjoy doing the most.

  6. could someone clarify the wordplay for me on this one (satyric) ?

    i could only account for the y (end of day presumably) and possibly the ric – rising about: cir(ca) reversed ? but nil else.

    grateful for enlightenment.

    tks
    paul b

    1. The rest is SAT coming from “press” (about half-way through the definition of SIT in Chambers)

      SAT,Y,RIC (CIR reversed) was how I had it.

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