I found this one fairly straightforward – 61 minutes, with no books used. S for “starter” next to clue numbers shows the ones I solved the first time I looked at them. E for “ender” is shown for the last half-dozen to go in – I think these followed a few minutes of being stuck. My time might have been helped by the low number of answers in this puzzle – 32 rather than the usual 36, but I think the mostly familiar answer words were more important – only 4 of them were completely new to me, though there are probably another 4 or so that would be new to Mephisto beginners.
| Across |
| 1 |
CHICK,(A)BIDDY – easy enough to see the wordplay structure, but the right choices for the two women took a long time to emerge |
| 10 S |
HAAR = sea-mist, from cartoon character HA(g)AR the Horrible – haar and fret were briefly fashionable on BBC weather reports a couple of decades ago. |
| 11 S |
REST = holiday, ORE = Scandinavian coins |
| 12 |
G(OLD,F=folio)INGER – “flick” is the definition here – cue Shirley Bassey
|
| 13 |
EDI = rev. of ide = fish, TO = for (in Chambers def for “to”), RIAL = foreign currency |
| 14 |
S = second, FOOT = part of verse |
| 16 S |
BATS = rev. of stab |
| 18 E |
ETOURDI = (outride(r))* – étourdi is a French word for foolishness, listed in Chambers |
| 21 S |
C.(LEANS)E. |
| 23 S |
ULNA – hidden word |
| 26 E |
FUNG = “a fabulous Chinese bird, sometimes called the phoenix”, I = one – if I’d remembered the bird, which I’ve seen in other puzzles, this might have been an S rather than an E. The def is “magic mushrooms?”, with the “?” providing the indication for the definition by example |
| 27 E |
GUIDE = “girl, maybe”, RAIL = rev. of liar |
| 28 S |
THUMBS = “approving sign put up”, CREW = company |
| 29 |
EARFLAP – A in rev. of palfre(y) = old horse |
| 30 |
ETAT = rank – rev. of (s)tate – this should possibly have been another S |
| 31 |
RE(SIL(I)ENT)LY |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
CHEESE = disc (“the cheese-shaped disc used in skittles”), CUTTER = launch = ship – a cheesecutter being a square-peaked cap |
| 2 |
H(AND,F)UL(k) – my excuse for this not being an S is that I didn’t read enough about the Incredible Hulk in my youth |
| 3 |
C(ROT)ON – croton is a tropical spurge |
| 4 |
KILOTON – O = “love”, in KILT ON = “wearing national dress” |
| 5 |
BEFITTED – BEF = rev. of Feb, then ‘T = it, in diet* |
| 6 |
IS, 1 AC = “the first clue” – Isiac = “relating to Isis” |
| 7 S |
DOG = follow, CART = rev. of trac(k) |
| 8 |
YRENT = tren(d)y* |
| 9 |
VER(IS, I = current), MILIT.)Y |
| 15 |
DESPISAL – I in rev. of lapsed = fell |
| 17 |
V = Victor (radio alphabet),EN(T)URE |
| 19 E |
OFF = starting, ERE = before, E = European |
| 20 E |
DIG = taunt, ITAL(y) |
| 22 S |
T(U from cUrry)EEN |
| 24 S |
L(e)(A)HAR |
| 25 E |
HUB,LI(t) – here is the city |
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