Mephisto 2641 – Tim Moorey

Took me a while to make inroads on this one, had most of the right hand side filled, but only a few scattered answers on the left. 1 and 35 across fell at almost the same time and the rest of the grid came together in a rush. I find with Tim Moorey’s Mephistos that I rely on the wordplay a lot more than the definitions, so my question marks were more about definitions.

There was an awful lot of fun in this one – to me 25, 16 and 13 were stand-out clue

Away we go

Across
1	HEART-RENDING: TREND in HEARING
9	1,N,CORPSE: to incorporate – the N comes from the end of examinatioN
11	T,HAG,I: glad there was only one unchecked letter in this one!
13	TO,BIAS: liked this one – TO as in “next to”
14	OBTUSER: (BRUTES)* (anagrindicator is rightly – as in set rightly) beside O
15	KHORS: sounds like “Cause”
17	TALE,A: rhythmic patterns are usually some form of TALA, TAAL or TALEA in the wacky world of barred grids
18	FAR,C(it)Y: from the wordplay, glanders
20	ANIS: BANISH without the edges
23	RIGG: double definition. Diana Rigg has a lengthy listof credits, but to me she will always be the recipient of Daniel Radcliffe’s flicked condom
24	THESP: crypic definition, unless I’m missing something (which is highly likely)
26	CLOOT: This one gave me difficulty, L in CO-OP with T for P, a fabric
30	ROUTH: remove the D from DROUTH. Another one where I’m glad there was only one unchecked
31	S,LATTER: from the wordplay, as a verb it can mean to splash
32	ARMANI: MAN in ARI(a)
33	GOELS: O in GELS, also from wordplay, the description in Chambers is rather graphic!
34	SMALLAGE: celery has types?
35	BANANA(s),BENDER: not all Aussies are BANANA-BENDERS, just the ones from Queensland
Down
1	HIT OFF: or HI TOFF. Didn’t think this was that actual definition, but it’s in Chambers
2	ACATERS: anagram of (CREAM TEAS) without EM. Provisoners
3	R.O.,GUY: obsolete form of ROGUISH
4	TRIST: liked this – TRISTRAM without his RAM (hope he keeps a few flash drives handy)
5	ESTRANGELO: STRANGE in ELO, which is a rating on how well people can play chess based on their prog rock virtuosity
6	DOBHASH: BOD reversed on HASH
7	NEAR EAST: AREA in NEST, &lit
8	GOSSAN: L out of GLOSS, A,N(number), decomposed rock
10	VIOL: LOV(e) reversed with I(in) in(in)
12	SEX,A,GESIMA: the last bit is (IMAGES)*, Second Sunday before Lent obtainable from wordplay
16	MALLORCA: A,C,ROLL,AM(before lunch) all reversed, outstanding wordplay!
19	CROTALA: clappers – wordplay is ROTA in CL(Sri Lanka) then S off AS(like)
21	BEST,(h)EAD
22	SCRAM,B: B for BEDBUG has popped up on occasion
25	PARSER: hehehe, ARSE in PR
27	OUMA: T off OUT, then M,A
28	PAGLE: L in PAGE
29	STOLN: STOLLEN without LE