Mephisto 2677 – Tim Moorey

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Happy New Year everyone!

Glad I still have this, it’s been sitting in my pile a while (a rhyme to bring in 2011). This is the Mephisto from December 18 (many of you may remember it as the day where the most headache-inducing Azed in history came out). I remember this being a bit of sharp relief after banging my head against that Azed.

I had a bunch of question marks when solving without a dictionary, but I think everything is pretty much covered now. Nice puzzle with the usual elegant Tim Moorey wordplay – although I think there’s a little sneakiness going on at 4 that stretches a rule or two.

Across
1 ORTS: ESTRO (enthusiasm) reversed without the E
4 SASSOLIN: SOL(solution) in SASIN(Indian antelope)
9 PERTHITE: I should have gotten this faster, as I have been to the place where the definition for the mineral came from (it’s in Western Ontario, near Ottawa)
11 CORREGIDOR: E.G. in CORRIDOR
12 PESSIMAL: AMISS reversed in PEL(t)
15 LEONE: E in L, ONE – rhino is currency in this case
16 STAPES: Marie Stopes appeared here not that long ago, now has gets her O replaced with an A
17 INTRO(jazz beginning),N
18 POTOOS: SOOT,OP all reversed
20 CHASMY: Fun definition (“like opening”) – CH, AS and then M(adame Bovar)Y
23 ARENA: AN ERA reversed
25 DOMINANT: MINA in DON’T
26 NEAPOLITAN: anagram of EXPLANATION without the X(times)
27 TACHISTE: I liked this clue, though it was my last in – I was sure we were looking for a painter’s name. It’s TACE (be silent – new word for me) around (THIS)* and is a type of abstract painter. Well played, had me lost for a while.
28 ALECOSTS: COST in ALES – if you’re new to these, file away ALE as a festival as a regular appearer
29 LEER: LEVER without the V in the middle
 
Down
1 OPEPES: PEPE(our Spaniard de jour) inside OS
2 REFECTORIES: FE (Further Education, a new abbreviation to me) inside RECTORIES
3 STOSS: STOPS(blocks) with ‘S replacing the P
4 SHRIVE: anagram of HIVERS. Is this kosher? I thought it was a no-no to expect us to deduce a word and then anagram it. Fortunately there’s only one unchecked letter
5 STEADICAM: CID,A(are) reversed in STEAM
6 OLIVE,T: T is the start of TROUSERS
7 LED HORSE: L.E.D. then sounds like HOARSE
8 NOREEN: NE’ER,ON all reversed
10 COGNOMINATE: COG(cheat), then IN with NO MATE surrounding. I wonder if anyone else wrote in CONNOMINATE and didn’t check?
13 MASOOLAS: ASS in MOOLA, ‘S
14 CATENATE: CAT(lynx), then (A,TEEN)*. When I was in the UK in August I had lunch with Tim Moorey, Paul McKenna and Peter Biddlecombe and one of the topics of conversation was the just-published Azed puzzle which required this word to be clued. Tim Moorey got a HC (possibly for this clue), as did Paul McKenna. I got nothing.
18 PAANGA: PA(past), then 40% of ANGEL, A – Tongan currency
19 ON SPEC: CEPS, NO all reversed
21 HAITHS: anagram of (H,OATHS) with I(nverness) substituted for O(nothing), &lit
22 Y(ap),(n)ATTER
24 S(alesme)N,AIL

5 comments on “Mephisto 2677 – Tim Moorey”

  1. I was very interested to see what you made of 4D George. For me it’s an indirect anagram. Not difficult but that surely isn’t the point. Perhaps Peter or Tim would like to comment?

    I also looked up CONNOMINATE first before getting the right answer.

    Just a reminder to everybody that 2678 was blogged out of sequence last week on Christmas Day (the day it appeared in the Crossword Club)

    1. “Not difficult but that surely isn’t the point”.. not sure what is the point here – especially if it’s not difficult? No rule should debar a good clue…
  2. Along with most (all?) other setters, I maintain that if there is one synonym only to be anagrammed, it is not indirect. See page 55 of How to Master The Times Crossword with an example on page 56 of a clue from The Times using OMICRON. In this case I checked to see if the French have any other words for WINTER and they seem not to.
    1. I’m sure that this exception to the usual ban on indirect anagrams is also recorded in the introduction to Azed/Jonathan Crowther’s “A-Z of Crosswords” – the most recent easily available summary of Ximenean clue-writing standards. I used a French/English dictionary to reach the same conclusion as Tim.

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