Mephisto 2587 – Mike Laws

I missed doing the last two Mephistos since I have been on the road, and it sounds like I missed some real tough ones. I found this mostly straightforward, I managed about three quarters of it without Chambers or Bradfords and the last few words were easy enough to confirm. That’s a bit of a relief, because I had a couple of weeks of missed crosswords to catch up with.

The wordplay was impeccable through the crossword, so after writing the blog, I think I called it easy because of good wordplay, if you were relying on definitions for entries, you might have had more of a slog.

Across
1	FORWARD: WAR in Gerald FORD
6	MAHDI: the D from MAD interrupting HI, don’t see that wordplay often
10	AIRY: AIRY-FAIRY without the FAIRY
11	NARICORN: IRAN reversed then CORN – got this from the wordplay, it’s the tube/hook thing at the end of the beak in some birds
12	CLOCKWISE: (WICK)* in CLOSE
14	INSURER: RE in (RUINS)*
15	PRIEST: I.R. reversed in PEST, and a surface that I love, but may rankle a few this close to the day of eggs
16	AGGRO: GR(gross) in AGO. This word seems to be popping up a lot lately, so here’s where I first remember it from, an Australian “kiddies” TV puppet, Agro Vate
18	HEMLINE: (WHILE MEN)* without the W – the online clue ends in “dressed”, surely it was meant to be “dress”
22	A,R,BLAST: another spelling of ARBALEST
23	AS,PEN
24	ELY,SEE: I’ll admit this was from wordplay, I knew there was a Champs, didn’t know the palace was right on it
27	DAIS,I,ED
29	WATCHWORD: (WHAT CROWD)*
30	INCITANT: IN then IT(personal magnetism) in CAN’T
31	AKEE: (b)AKE(r) then E from PIE. West Indian fruit
32	NIE,CE: sneaky definition, that PRIEST could be a BROTHER
33	G,LITTER
Down
1	FA CUP: FAC(e) then UP(success)
2	OIL PRESS: I,L in OP(p)RESS
3	W,Y,C,H ELM: A tree seeable from wordplay
4	(y)ANKUS: a sort of goad
5	DRINKER: DRIER around N,K, &lit
6	MISSAL: MI is the note, then LASS reversed
7	HOURGLASS: (RUSH,GOALS)*
8	DREE: REED with the D going to the top – the “Scot’s” part of the clue is part of the definition
9	INTROIT: INTROMIT without the M – anthem at the start of a mass
13	TIMEPIECE: EMIT rev then PIECE
17	ROSE TREE: (RESTORE)* then E
18	HEADPIN: (PAID)* in HEN and a nice definition using the bowling version of “strike”
19	NAME TAG: A,MET in NAG
20	FLY, SWAT
21	UNI,ATE
25	LA,H,TI: Another one from wordplay, haven’t heard of the place. Looks pretty
26	EIDER: OK, probably the first thing that comes to mind when you see “Duck” twice in a clue, but the wordplay took a while to deconvolute – it’s I.E. reversed, then (o)DER
28	AGNI: hidden in mAGNIficent