Mephisto 2627 – Tim Moorey

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Well now that was well done George. I wrote an immaculate and detailed blog for the wrong puzzle this morning. I deleted it, so the lucky few who checked in consider yourselves very lucky. And thanks to Peter for spotting that I had blogged the wrong puzzle. Life hasn’t returned to normal and Australia losing so many Tests has brought me to the brink of despair.

I did this on a plane between Melbourne and Sydney with only Bradfords and I managed to come up with an answer for everything but 8 and 10 across, which needed to wait until I could use my electronic version of Chambers. Away we go!

Across
3 RIJSTTAFEL: (JR,FATTIES,L)* Try saying that three times quickly with a mouth of gado-gado! Thankfully it’s in Bradfords.
9 REAGAN: RE,AGAIN without the I(indeed), former US President, and even more former star of great films such as “Bedtime for Bonzo”
10 AULOI: anagram of LOU(d) and AI(r) plural for a greek reed instrument
12 AMIS(s)
13 MAT(a web of yarn),ABELE: can’t find them in Chambers but they’re googlable
15 PETR(on)EL: PETRONEL for a rifle is in Chambers
17 AMOROSO: interesting clue – A(Ante, before), MORO’S(former Itlian Prime Minister Aldo Moro),O(love) but in that case isn’t “with love” doing double duty?
19 (v)ITAS
20 WHITE RAT: (THREAT,W,1)*
22 TIGER,ISH: Who was the highest paid player on the PGA tour last year? Elin Nordgren.
24 MAW,R: didn’t know MAW could mean the fourth stomach
25 HALLAL,I: in Bradfords under BUGLE
30 LINK UP: P, UK, NIL all reversed
31 ARMALITE: (MATERIAL)*
32 DIS(cu)S, a town in Norfolk, thankfully easy to get at from wordplay
33 KISAN: in Bradfords under “peasant” – had to check that NASIK was an Indian city
34 LIGETI: I,GET in L(ibrett)I
35 ASS,URGENCY: reminds me of the Americans episode from Fawlty Towers. Can’t find a clip, but it’s on the memorable quotes…

Mr. Hamilton: You’re the manager, you’re responsible. What are you gonna tell your chef?
Basil Fawlty: [Pausing] I’ll have a word with him.
Mr. Hamilton: A word? Man, you’re gonna tell him, “lay it on the line!”, and if he doesn’t get his act together, your gonna bust his ass!
Basil Fawlty: [Confused] Bust his…
Mr. Hamilton: ASS!
Basil Fawlty: …Oh that!

 
Down
1 CRAP,PIT,HEAD: Tim Moorey has served this up before
2 DEMENTIA: (AND,E,TIME)*
3 RAITS: I in RATS
4 JAMES: NAME with J for N(chump being the end),S(Sheep’s head)
5 T,A,TAMIS: I remember using a T SQUARE in school, TAMIS is a glazed fabric
6 TUAN: A for R in TURN, Malay word for SIR (also a first name I’ve seen in some south-east asian countries)
7 FOE,TOR: possibly a crappithead
8 EILD: DIE around L reversed, old age
11 XEROTRIPSIS: X(cross),O,TRIP,SIS surrounding (h)ER
14 BYREMAN: BY then R in (NAME)*
16 ROSELLA: SELL in ROA(d)
18 SAW,DUSTY
21 HILDING: I like the sneaky wordplay to make the surface – L in HIDIN’ then the G comes back from GOOD
23 GLAMIS: L in GAM,IS
26 LIE-IN: since there’s LIE in gondoLIEr
27 SKIEY: K,I in YES reversed – like the definition of “up in the weather”
28 (b)ERKS – aircraftmen
29 ALAR(m)

8 comments on “Mephisto 2627 – Tim Moorey”

  1. All of which lets me own up to my mistake on this puzzle – not checking the newspaper version of the grid carefully enough to see either the extra bar making 7D apparently (5) rather than (6), or the matching wrong enumeration for the same clue. One of a few lessons learned the hard way on my first Sunday.
    1. Ouch… the date-stamped printout I have for the grid (1/1) has the enumeration at 7D being (6) and there quite clearly being a solid bar beneath the sixth row in the 7th column.
      1. You had the xwd club version, which was correct. The error was in the print and online ST versions.
  2. George, I do sympathise.. this sort of thing happens to us all, as we get older

    And indeed I am lucky, because I not only looked at the previous blog, but it is still open, in another tab. It is very interesting to compare it with Jimbo’s original blog.. you should look at the comments to it, re 16dn.. all in all, much more entertaining than 2627 above!

    1. I saw the comments with regard to 16d, which I also didn;t understand, though once I saw the point of the clue I understood it.

      The only loss I’m sad for is linking the Rammstein youtube vidoe.

  3. Cheated like mad but finally crossed the line after several hours spread across several days. Didn’t know the alternative spelling for halal, which I should have guessed, as it’s a transliteration anyway. A year before I look at another Listener – I will save up the Club Monthly for my retirement …

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