This was the toughest Mephisto for me in a long time, and I thought it was going to be a doddle, usually I’m on the same wavelength as Paul McKenna (helps that I’ve talked to him more than I have the other two Mephisto setters), but even though there was nothing outrageous in the wordplay department (I think), there were just a lot of words that were out of my comfort zone. I made it tough on myself for mistaking the two parts of 33 across. I’ll call this crossword the doughnut, because for a long time there were entries all across the outside, but a big hole in the middle.
There’s a lot of short words here (actually in writing the blog I nearly ran out of spaces in the table template), and only one straight-out anagram. Here we go…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SURREY: SUR (“over” in French), R(epair), then Y(ard) in E(astern) S(ection) – a lot of words that can be single letter abbreviations there |
| 6 | MIMES: I,M(edium) in MES(short for MESSERS, I think?) |
| 10 | CLAUSE: A joker is an innocent-looking clause, and CAUSE in Shakespeare is a matter, though I’m not sure I am totally on board with “adding … to” as a container indication |
| 11 | E,IDENT: busy being diligent this time (when I saw it in Bradfords I thought it was going to be a sland for policeman) |
| 12 | IS,IN,G,L,ASS: gelatinous matter and a great charade |
| 15 | LALDIES: L(oathsome) for the first D in LADDIES. Barred-grid mainstay that the first letter of any word can be used as an abbreviation |
| 16 | L,A,V,A,BO: I originally discounted this while looking up LAVA.. words in Chambers, but the toilet (toot) definition is there at the end |
| 17 | PETTLE: L in PETTE |
| 18 | ALLYL: L |
| 24 | DRUPE: R in DUPE – a fruit I had to write in to Bradfords |
| 26 | THROVE: anagram of HOVERCRAFT without C,RAF |
| 27 | N,EATER |
| 28 |
|
| 30 | COURTEOUS: got this from the definition – RTE replacing SC in COUSCOUS |
| 31 | E,A,T OUT: at least I think so? |
| 32 | A,SS,U,ME: the two S’s being sons |
| 33 | DRAWS: SWARD reversed – I had SWARD in there for a long frustrating time |
| 34 | O(over),MITT,ED(one making changes) |
| Down | |
| 1 | SCILLA: I think it’s ILL in SCA |
| 2 | RAIL: take the F from FRAIL (thanks again Bradfords) |
| 3 | RUNWAYS: WAY in RUNS |
| 4 | YELLOW: E in WOLLY reversed, and more Bradfords-diving |
| 5 | SEA APE: A,AP in SEE |
| 6 | MISLEADER: ISLE in (DREAM)* |
| 7 | MERITS: STIR reversed after ME |
| 8 | EN,V,ELOPED |
| 9 | STASES: AS in SETS reversed |
| 13 | BALT,HAZAR |
| 14 | OBLIVIOUS: L,1 in OBVIOUS |
| 19 | BRAVEST: RAV(Rabbi) in BEST |
| 20 | STE,WED: the first part is SAINTE |
| 21 | ERRATA: (AT REAR)* |
| 22 | TEN,UT,O – made a recent appearance with the same wordplay in the last Mephisto I blogged. I know these are done more than a month ahead. |
| 23 | ENGRAM: MARGE(Simpson) reversed about N |
| 25 | ERASED: hidden |
| 29 | P,OUT |
At 15ac I don’t quite follow the blog as to where LADDIES comes from. I thought “Such as naughty bairns get” was the definition, DIES was the “day” but can’t explain the LAL
I agree with you on 1dn George.
The nearest I could get to 13dn is BALT + HAZAR(dry) – as “dry” and “green” are opposites “but” has to be the excluding indicator, ie “but (=excluding) not green (dry)”.
When I went to print yesterday’s puzzle it took me to next week’s. Anyone else get this?
At 13D I had BALT-HAZAR(dry) where green=undried so not green=dry but then where’s the deletion indicator? Not clear how ding=green either.
Got home in about an hour but quite a fight along the way