Mephisto 2717 – Paul McKenna

I did this while watching Australia pummel India in the World Twenty20, so it was obviously a good time. Started in the bottom right and worked my way up and across from there – interesting grid this one, with no very long answers (there’s nothing over 10 letters) it kind of resolves into two half-grids separated by 5 down and 16 down.

As I start to write up the blog, I still don’t get the wordplay for 14 across, which I found in Chambers from the definition, and for 20 across (also gotten from definition). Hopefully something will come soon.

I have edited a few sloppy mistakes from my initial posting that were mentioned in comments.

Away we go…

Across
1 DOO(m),DAD
6 SATNAV: SAT(placed) then VAN reversed
12 SAGE,GROUSE
13 ACNE: N(start of nostril) in ACE
14 CRATHUR: Aaah, got it it’s CHURL without the L around RAT(shop as in betray)
15 WHAISLE: IS in WHALE(one eating well)
18 AT BAT: Joe DiMaggio was a baseball player – so it’s TBA(to be announced) after A, then T(time)
20 ELUDE: hey, two for two – looked up GOAL in Bradfords and there’s DULE – so it’s DULE reversed(preposterous) next to E
22 FRAILTEE: (RELIEF,AT)*
24 DARRAINE: RAIN in DARE
25 TIG(twitch),ON: cross between tiger and lion, not to be confused with a LIGER. Now I wonder what would happen if a liger mated with a tigon?
27 ADAGE: E(eccentricity) on A DAG – I’ve been called a DAG many many times in Australia in the 70s
30 GIN TRAP: TR(Turkey – IVR code) with IN before it, inside GAP
32 AILMENT: move the I in ALIMENT(nourishment)
33 WI-FI: Take the endings off WIT(reason) and FIT(supply)
34 S,EVENS(quits),AGES: The SEVEN SAGES were the topic of a Listener crossword earlier this year
35 TRENDY: END in TRY(judge)
36 L,ASHES
 
Down
2 OUCHT: CH in OUT(on loan)
3 OSNABURGS: (BONUS,RAGS)*
4 A,GAS: AGA for an iron stove is a staple of barred-grid crosswords
5 DECLARING: E(established),C(church),L(line) in DARING
7 A,RAME(n)
8 TOT,ALL,ED
9 AS(so far),UNDER
10 VERB: BREVE revsered without the E on the end – when I printed this there was a typo with the first letter of “speech” missing – it was fixed later on
11 V,A,WARD: old word for forefront – appears to have been spoken by Falstaff who was Duke of York or something like that (must brush up on my Shakespeare)
16 ELAN VITAL: EL(Spanish “the”), (VALIANT)*
17 OUTPARISH: OU(South African man) then R in (PATH,IS)* – used to seeing this term here for the suburbs of cities in Louisiana
19 APRONMEN: wordplay is A,PRO,N,MEN – and I get the mason definition, but I don’t quite see the Coriolanus reference – there is a speech about “the mechanics of Rome”… I’m feeling Shakespeare-deficient in a big way with this crossword
21 H,AIR,(t)IER
23 E,YEP,IT
26 NO END: (DONNE)*
28 GAFFE: take the end off of GAFFER tape
29 FAST: three definitions
31 NAGA: hidden reversed in extravAGANt

8 comments on “Mephisto 2717 – Paul McKenna”

  1. 19A: the apronmen get their mention in Act 4 Scene 6. The Shakespeare online website has a useful search button.
  2. I haven’t been doing the Mephisto lately, more for lack of time than anything. But I did this one and I think it might be a bit easier than some, a nice one to ease back in with.. 40m or thereabouts
    Re your intro George, the little jobs are “letters,” words are the bigger jobs.
    Re 11dn: “You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too.” Falstaff, Henry IV part II, as per the Shakespeare website Peter mentioned.
  3. Agreed, on the easy side – entertaining without ever being stretching. The Waggledagger was a bit lost on me too, but not enough to cause problems.

    Welcome back Jerry

  4. I found this pretty straightforward for a Mephisto too, but still noticeably harder than Azed. Is it just me or is Azed generally easier than Mephisto?
    I have a degree in English Literature and have studied both the relevant plays, but was mystified by the Shakespeare references. Mind you that was a while ago and I have a terrible memory.
  5. I don’t do Azed.. no time. But back in the days when I started doing the Mephisto, the late 1960s, Azed was reckoned to be slightly harder than Mephisto.. which is why I started doing the latter! Azed also had a lot of themed crosswords, which I rather dislike. No idea if it still does.
    1. Thanks. There are still non-“plain” Azeds, with funny clue types. Sometimes I enjoy these, sometimes I find them annoying, depending largely on how much time I have on my hands.
      1. I would say neither Azed for Mephisto are as difficult as the master, Ximenes was. Over time I don’t think there’s much to choose between them. However, as I’ve been solving Azed’s puzzles since number one I know his style inside out.
        1. I have found Ximenes puzzles in books pretty difficult, but I’ve never been a weekly Ximenes solver. If familiarity makes a difference, Mephisto should be a bit harder, everything else being equal, because you only see each setter every 3 weeks. But everything else isn’t equal, even if you start Azed and Mephisto simultaneously – you can’t solve blocked grid puzzles by Azed, but if you buy the right newspapers, you can do blocked grid puzzles by all 3 Mephisto setters.

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