Mephisto 2630 by Tim Moorey

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Mephisto
An essentially easy Mephisto with a smaller than usual quota of obscure words solved in 40 minutes with almost no need to reference Chambers.

It is frustrating therefore to report that I have been unable to unravel the cryptic for 10D, TIRING HOUSE. Being familiar with The Globe (see link in blog) it only needed a couple of checking letters to confirm the answer. However, the cryptic, which I suspect is just too clever for me, I can’t unravel. It’s very nearly an anagram of “to furnish it eg” but other than that I’m stumped. All suggestions welcomed.

Across
1 MAWR – RA(W)M reversed; sheep=RAM; with=W; a Norfolk broad, perhaps;
4 OX-PECKER – O-X-PECKER; love=O; kiss=X; kisser=PECKER; a bird so called for its habit of eating insects found on cattle;
9 ALL,AT,SEA – A-(stella)*-A; rock=AA (worth remembering);
11 ANHARMONIC – (canon + I)* surrounds (suc)H-A-RM; term=end of; jolly=Royal Marine=RM; “fancy” is anagrind; an oscillator that is not oscillating in simple harmonic motion is anharmonic;
12 LARGESSE – sounds like “large S” = S(oro’s) first;
15 NELIS – SILEN(t) reversed; (distilled spirit) without flavour=silent; the winter pear;
16 DITZ – luxury hotel=RITZ then swap D=Duke for R=Queen;
17 ACCIDENT – ACC(ID)ENT; infectious diseases=ID;
18 SMIDGEON – S(MIDGE)ON;
20 EDGY – ED-G(u)Y; Miliband=ED; fellow=guy then deliver”=”remove” union=u;
22 CEORL – CEO-R-L; Chief Executive Officer=CEO; also “churl” the bedrock citizen of Anlo-Saxon England;
25 CAMELEON – CAME-(NOEL reversed);
26 TRAVERTINE – TR(AVERT)INE; go=TRINE-2; avoid=AVERT; limestone deposited by hot springs used to build the Colosseum;
27 DISGUISE – sounds like DI’S guys;
28 AMELCORN – A(MEL)CORN; honey=MEL; rice used to produce starch;
29 SKER – SKER(ry=railway); also skirr; hunt for haggis?;
 
Down
1 MACLED – MAC-LED;
2 ALKALIMETRY – (K=potassium + materially)*; the analytical use of acid-based titration;
3 RANGY – cross=angry then move r=right to the top=RANGY;
4 OTHER – (f)OTHER; cartload=fother; following=F;
5 PERSICOT – PER-S(I)COT; A=PER; payment=SCOT; apricot liqueur;
6 CLOSED – C(LOSE)D; Diplomatic Corps=CD;
7 KENTLEDGE – KENT-LEDGE(r); county=KENT; resident=ledger; scrap iron used as ballast;
8 RACIST – (b=british)RA-CIST; box=CIST;
10 TIRING-HOUSE – see The Globe Tiring House and preamble;
13 RATIONALE – (o)RATION-(t)ALE;
14 SCENARIO – (reactions minus t=time)*;
18 SCOTIA – (is a)* surrounds COT; a moulding but more commonly the Roman name for Scotland;
19 DRIVEL – DRIVE-L(ast); urge=DRIVE; cobblers=slang=DRIVEL;
21 YANKER – (year)* surrounds NK=natural killer; a porkie-pie in Perth;
23 FEIGN – sounds like fane-2=a temple; old word for shape;
24 ALNUS – LA=look reversed-NUS=National Union of Students; the Alder tree;

5 comments on “Mephisto 2630 by Tim Moorey”

  1. 10d is an anagram of ‘Organiser to furnish it’ after you haven taken out ‘for star in’.
      1. Managed to finish this ‘easy’ one (albeit with two wrong) with more than half done under my own steam, so some progress. Need to be more analytical for this type of puzzle, e.g. 1ac where I put ‘maar’ (failing to spot the impossibility of ‘folds with’ grammatically as a containment indicator, which I should have done, since language is my thing), 5, where I failed to take account of ‘a’ and puzzled how ‘perscot’ could mean ‘payment’, and 18, where I failed to spot ‘shambles’ as an anagrind. I got the latter two correct but I need to Get It Right, as the Goodies would say.

        The other I failed on was FEIGN, when I had narrowed the options down to d-, f- and r-. This was disappointing as I know ‘fane’ as temple.

        Thanks for the blog, Jim, and I’ll start soon on that other recent ‘easy’ one.

  2. Found this one pretty straightforward too, only needed Chambers to confirm CLOSED and the first letter of 23 down. Enjoyed the clue for DITZ very much

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