On a cold and miserable bank holiday weekend when the AZED competition puzzle was very straightforward I gratefully found this quite difficult. I have one query at 11A where I can’t see the full parsing. My first read through of the clues yielded only about six answers, well below average, and I had to slog away corner by corner. Normally quite good at anagrams, I took far too long to get DUNDERHEADISM which slowed me down. However, there is a satisfaction in working steadily away until the final solution drops into place that far exceeds skipping through easier fare.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FETISH – FET-IS-H; go and get (old)=FET; remains without changing=IS; Henry=H (physics); solving Mephisto?; |
| 6 | THIRAMS – THI(RAM)S; warship’s prow=RAM; fungicide; dimethylcarbamothioylsulfanyl, to be precise; |
| 11 | ALAAP – A-LA(ugh)-AP (I think); I don’t understand ugh=group (pop music reference?); apparently=AP; Hindu music; |
| 13 | MANEH – MAN(y)-EH; do you agree?=EH?; a weight of money between 50 and 60 shekels; |
| 14 | DUNDERHEADISM – (I made hundreds)*; Gordon Brown and bigot-gate; |
| 15 | GABBROIC – GABB(a)-R(euse)-O(ldies)-I(mpressive)-C(o |
| 17 | ETAS – two meanings (1=Greek letters; 2=Japanese menial workers) plus SATE=please, reversed; |
| 18 | CUSTOCK – CU(t)-STOCK; straight thrust (fencing)=stoccado=STOCK-2; part of a cabbage; |
| 19 | BECASSE – B(EC)ASSE; French bird (woodcock pas maîtresse); |
| 23 | VOLUSPA – VOLU(me)S-PA; volume=old word for rise; a word used incorrectly by Scott to mean Sybil. In fact the first poem of the Edda about Odin and Volva; |
| 26 | YODE – (smooch)Y-ODE; term=finish; Spenser’s word for proceed; |
| 28 | OSTRAKON – (o=ordinary + ranks to)*; a piece of pottery used by Athenians to vote on whether to banish somebody. Possibly currently being deployed against George Papandreou; |
| 30 | TATTIE-LIFTING – TAT-TIE-L-IF-TING; odds and ends=TAT; bind=TIE; line=L; providing=IF; ring=TING; the potato harvest, so important once in Ireland; |
| 31 | EPHOR – E(PHO)R; ER from (bald)ER(dash); expression of contempt=PHO; a Spartan official; |
| 32 | INNIT – INN-IT; old word for lodge=INN; in children’s games the sole opponent is called IT; modern tag – irritating innit; |
| 33 | DIP-TRAP – (rapid)* surrounds PT=physical training; U-bend containing liquid; |
| 34 | NEBISH – NE-BISH; originally called=NE (male version); a mistake=BISH; lacking chutzpah, a victim oy vey; |
| Down | |
| 1 | FADGED – wearied=fagged then change g=German to d=daughter; Nick Clegg fadged with younger voters; |
| 2 | ELUATE – (v)ELU(m)-ATE; membrane=velum; took in=ATE; purified liquid; |
| 3 | TAN,BALLS – TA(N-BA)LL-S; remarkable=TALL; son=S; new=N; soul=BA; compressed fuel brickettes. I Googled this and learned of a whole new world!; |
| 4 | SPERRE – S(P)ERRE; press close=SERRE; Spenser appears again with this word for to bar; |
| 5 | HEROIC,POEM – (Homer)* surrounds I-C-POE; see=C; Alan Edgar POE; a mixture of epic and romance; |
| 6 | TSHI – T-SH-I; a language from Ghana and Brixton High Road; |
| 7 | IMAMS – I(MAM)S; Guatemalans=MAM; |
| 8 | RADE – RAD-E; RAD-3=excellent; rode in Ross; |
| 9 | MESIC – ME-SIC; a habitat between xeric (desert like) and hydric (rather wet); |
| 10 | SHMEK – S(hem)*K; Saskatchewan=SK; see “schmek”. A schnoz application. The corruption of “schmek” gave rise to “smack” used to describe heroin; |
| 12 | RECUSATION – (as neurotic)*; |
| 16 | MONOKINI – (NOM reversed)-OK-IN-I; name=NOM; yes=OK; a=I; after my excursion with “tan balls” I didn’t dare Google this for fear of my blood pressure; |
| 20 | SURFIE – (lifeguards with “glad” removed)*; |
| 21 | ADONIS – ADO-(SIN reversed); |
| 22 | LENGTH – L(gent)*H; line=L; hard=H; bowled=anagrind; |
| 23 | VOTED – VO-TED; back of a leaf=VO; spread out=TED; what the UK did last Thursday and landed us all in the cleggy; |
| 24 | OKAPI – OKA-PI; cured grub (cheese)=OKA; (printers) confusion=pie=PI; |
| 25 | SHIRR – SHIR(e)-R; rector=R; to gather cloth; |
| 27 | STOT – S(TO)T; two meanings (STOT-1=spring; STOT-2=a steer) plus stone=ST around TO; |
| 29 | SLIP – three meanings SLIP-2=sole (fish); SLIP-1=lapse; SLIP-4=a counterfeit coin; |
Gave up.
I’m certain that if you use the blog and ask any questions you will be having a good shot at them within 6 months. Please don’t be reticent about asking – there’s no such thing as a daft question.
I read 11A as (g)ala – ap (apparently), in which case ‘is suitable for’ is just appositional and so redundant.
Tks for the blog
Paul
Didn’t do myself any favors by confidently putting in CANEH (which is of course a unit of distance, not currency), and ELUANT. ALAAP went in from definition, and CUSTOCK (in its other form as CASTOCK) was in a recent Listener, so I was clued in on the cabbagey word.
Definitely the most difficult Mephisto in recent memory. Azed seemed like a doddle in comparison.