Mephisto 2621 – Tim Moorey

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Mephisto
A fairly easy Mephisto, finished in about 40 minutes, using Chambers to complete 9D and the SW corner, but with a wrong answer at 24 and a bit of puzzlement at 22.

Apologies for the lateness of this (and the ST report posted for talbinho) – my ISP had some kind of outage yesterday which deprived us of our connection. I look forward to the day when an ADSL modem can be told to automatically restart itself every hour or so, rather than wait until you’ve run out of patience, called the helpline and listened to one of those messages that say “it’s fixed now, but you need to power down your modem”.

Across
1 PER(F)ORATION – peroration being the end of a speech, as well as a long speech
11 A V(is)ION – (avion = aeroplane) is one of those bits of French in Chambers – not sure why, except to explain “par avion”
13 SPAR = pole – reverse of raps = strikes
14 SAG(UAR)O – sago as a food comes from the pith of the sago palm, and a long time ago, Egypt and Syria together formed the United Arab Republic. Saguaros are huge cactuses
16 COUNT(y) = Limerick perhaps getting shortened – in Chambers, “count” (n.) is “esteem, consideration, account”
17 IMPATIEN(t) = endlessly restless, S = second – impatiens is a plant genus including the busy lizzie – the initial “one is” seems to be a Times-style bit of answer description, not seen so often in Mephistos
18 SORR(y) = almost worthless,E,L – sorrel2 is a reddish-brown or light chestnut, or a horse of that colour
20 TIBIAL = “of bone” – rev. of “la, 1, bit” = “note one piece”
22 TRODES – a Spenserian version of trod1 = “a track; path; footing” – this seems to be just a plain definition, as I can’t find anything else, but I wonder whether I’m missing something. I was – “Term for poet” = T – end of the word “poet” – then “rodes” are ancient tracks, making it an all-in-one
24 SQUAME = a scale – ‘S = is,QUA = as, M(ad)E
26 SPELUNKER = (peer slunk)* – a spelunker is a caver, and a chamber is an enclosed space or cavity – slightly surprised as I write this that there was no attempt to refer to “someone poking about in Chambers” or similar in the clue
28 NAT. (lower case) = native, A, LIE – don’t be led astray by TALE=story when parsing this one!
30 CHILI – a (hot and dry) wind of N. Africa = CHIL(l),1 – a nice Chambers-based variation on the routine wordplay for this answer
31 SAMLORS = eastern taxis – “sailors” with M instead of I
32 ERNS = “gains, as before” – alternate letters in reverse, of iS iN oRdEr
33 PERST = past of perse = a Spenserian “pierce” – I think the wordplay is PER = a, ST = outside letters (“case with”) of “sergeant”.
34 SEIGNEURIAL = of a lord – (luring, A = Australian, I see)*
Down
2 EVAN = boy – rev. of nave
3 RI = Rep. of Indonesia (IVR), GUP = gossip
4 FOULARD = (ill-favoured – veil)*
5 RERAIL = put back on track – retail with the T replaced by R
6 A = Advanced,V(OS)ET – the bird on the RSPB logo can be spelled with an S as well as a C
7 TECHNIQUE = way of proceeding – (C = club, H = house), in quieten*
8 OPUNTIA (another cactus) = Utopian*
9 N,ANTZ – I don’t remember the movie, but Nantz is a brandy – name derived from Nantes, maybe where it was exported from
10 ART(ILLER)IST
11 ASS,I(STANCE)S
15 STEEPLING = rising high – (Pete)* in SLING
19 ROUTINE = boring – OUT = forth, in rine = Spenserian “rind”
21 BUNDLER = hustler – “blunder” with the L = line moved downwards
23 S.E. = London area,IS,IN = home – seisin = freehold possession
24 S,LEAVE = parting, formally – to sleave is to separate
25 TAHRS = goats – T.A. = Territorial Army = volunteers, HRS
27 KOORI = an Aborigine – (O,O = loves) in KRI = a marginal reading in the Hebrew Bible, replacing a traditional but erroneous reading in the main text
29 U.(R)S.A. – ursa = bear, as in the names of two constellations

4 comments on “Mephisto 2621 – Tim Moorey”

  1. I think this may be an &lit and/or DD. Term for poet – t + rodes (old spelling of roads) = er…old word for tracks !

    Rgds
    Paul

  2. My second ever Mephisto completion is not my first ever correct one. I had SQUARE for 24ac.
    Thanks as ever for explanation of the ones I couldn’t parse even with extensive study of Chambers.
    I’m learning… slowly!
    1. That was my mistake too – a good lesson in not writing in an answer just because it looks like the only word that fits. If you can’t explain your “obvious” answer, there’s very likely to be something else that fits.
  3. Agreed – an easier one. 1A was so obvious (barely daily cryptic standard) and that gives the best possible start in this grid. Add the same comment for 11D and one is on a roll. I also had (poe)T-RODES for 22A

Comments are closed.