I didn’t get to blog this earlier in the day, and I will be able to write it up later tonight.
Please note – if you (as I did, unknowing) printed this last Sunday, you will have gotten Mephisto 2608 instead of 2607. The correct puzzle appeared in the middle of the week. So when the report goes up, the answers are going to be hidden behind a LiveJournal cut – click on the title of the article to see it all. Feel free to leave comments…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | UP,CASTs,HAFT: UP is together, CASTS is sheds, and HAFT is stock (Bradfords lists HILT which is close enough) |
| 10 | TURM: R (take) in TUM |
| 11 | MEL(honey),ON(in, old),S(special) |
| 12 | WAGER BOAT: (TOW A BARGE)* |
| 13 | EMPAIRE: from definition, having problems with the wordplay here |
| 14 | ETNA: ANTE reversed |
| 15 | LITTLEENDIAN: (DETAIL IN LENT) ref Gulliver’s Travels |
| 18 | IS,O,TO(near),NIC |
| 21 | SLUMP SUM: SLUM, then SUMP with the P moved to the front |
| 22 | TELEGRAPHESE: from the definition of terse jargon, but I’m not sure what else is going on here? |
| 26 | GR,IT(=lower order) |
| 27 | A,BUTTER |
| 28 | A,RM,ILL,ARY(=arrow) |
| 29 | SPIN,AE: a SPIN is five bucks, or what it costs to take one, I guess |
| 30 | E,LTS: E is the last of THE |
| 31 | WASH,AND,W,EAR |
| Down | |
| 2 | PUG MILL: UG,M in PILL |
| 3 | CRY,PT: not sure what Hamish is doing there unless it’s to throw me off the scent, which it kind of did |
| 4 | SKAIL: KAILS with the S moved to the top |
| 5 | TIGRESS: (RESIST)* about the G from the end of PACKAGING |
| 6 | HE,R,ON(=close to) |
| 7 | ALBEDOS: (BLADE SO)* |
| 8 | FOOTING: O,TIN in FOG |
| 9 | ESTANCIEROS: (TO INCREASE),S |
| 10 | THE LAST GASP: (GATES,HALT)* then ASP |
| 16 | BUL |
| 17 | EMETINS: EMMETS without an M, with IN (by) in. Hey, I just got to end a sentence in “in in”! |
| 19 | OUABAIN: got this from definition (poison), but struggling to see the wordplay |
| 20 | INSECTA: a top class person may be IN SECT A |
| 23 | GAL,AH |
| 24 | PU,RED: first bit is UP, up. Following in in we bring up up up. |
| 25 |
|
At 13A it’s EMP(A)IRE. On old world maps the British Empire was coloured pink and A=ante=before. I think 22A is a reference to the Daily Telegraph with blatt=newspaper. At 3D C gives CRY=call in Scotland. At 19D it’s OU(I)-A-BA(I)N where yes pretty much=OU(I); curse=BAN and current (physics)=I
A bit harder than average I thought but a nice puzzle.