Well I managed most of these on a plane without a dictionary so I’m thinking this is on the slightly easier end of the Mephisto spectrum. There was just a little bit of dictionary-trawling to get the last few letters.
I wondered if this was a genuine Paul McKenna for a while as I didn’t see any weird clueing of the letter A. Rather uncharacteristically it’s in there twice just as “A”.
Away we go!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | S,AGO(since),PAL,M |
| 7 | TWO,C |
| 10 | MINERAL WELL: M(ashona) then (I,LEARN)*, WELL(satisfactory) |
| 11 | AS FOR: SF(sforzando, forced) in AOR (unlistenable drivel, unless played by the Manualist) |
| 12 | BIOME: O in BIM(Barbadoan), E |
| 14 | SOFFIONI: (INFO,IS,OF)* |
| 16 | UDALLER: DALLE(a tile) in U,R |
| 18 | DANGER: swap the first and last letters of RANGED |
| 19 | A,B,SITS: passes to leave a college for a night |
| 21 | EGGLER: EG, then L in GER(yurt) |
| 23 | OAK NUT: Is this a cryptic def or am I missing something? |
| 24 | GROINED: GR(grey) then (DOE,IN)* – I thought a grunt would be the sound you made when you got GROINED |
| 28 | END,O,R,SER: the R being the end of DoctoR |
| 29 | A,ODA,I |
| 30 | NESKIL hidden |
| 31 | PEACEMONGER: P,E, then (CAMERON,EG)* |
| 32 | EROS: SORE reversed |
| 33 | CITESSES: Hmmm – I think this is right, Oppidians are city-dwellers, so CITESSES. We have CITE but I’m not sure how the tax thing gives us SSES? |
| Down | |
| 1 | SEASIDE GRAPE: (DISAGREES,APE) – had the GRAPE part well before SEASIDE |
| 2 | GIFFENG GOOD: (EFFING)* then GOOD(use as a noun) |
| 3 | ON-OFF: FON reversed in FO reversed |
| 4 | PERI,GEE |
| 5 | ‘ARD,’OUR |
| 6 | LAUND: N in LAUD (threw me for a moment an N with a line on it is 90000, a regular N is just 90) |
| 7 | ‘T,WILLS |
| 8 | OLMS: salamanders – LO reversed, then MS |
| 9 | CLEAR,S,TORIES |
| 13 | OILINESSES: (ESSO,LIES,IN)* |
| 15 | BAG,R: Bachelor of Agriculture. At the University of Tasmania we used to call that part of the University “Cow Campus” |
| 17 | ETUI: middle letters from poETry and qUIz |
| 20 | BAR, |
| 22 | LILACS: compound anagram of (BASICALLY-BAY). If you’re new to Mephistos this is a type of clue that is not permitted in the dailies, and italicised words are often a giveaway |
| 23 | ODD LOT: reversal of DO then reversal of TOLD |
| 25 | EN AMI: (I,NAME)* |
| 26 | DR,E.G.S |
| 27 | HOER: take (WOMEN)* out of HOMEWONER |
Holy shish-kebob!
Barbara
At 33A, SESS=CESS=an old tax with “preposterous” as the reversal indicator
Barbara, you’re not required to know what “ger” means but to use Chambers to confirm what it means from the clue
Good puzzle I thought but as George says, on the easy side of the distribution