Mephisto 2719 – Tim Moorey

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Oh boy did Tim Moorey have me crawling all over Chambers to get complete parsing of these clues! This is one of the more challenging Tim Moorey Mephistos I can remember for a long time, though I suspect many solvers will put in an answer and move on.

I did myself an injustice by putting in TINES confidently at 6 across (anagram of IN,SET), which really did hold up the top right hand corner.

I was also rather taken with the use of CLOCK as an anagram indicator. Funny thing was I was thinking of unusual anagram indicators yesterday, trying to write a clue for the Azed competition – Michael Curl (Orlando in the Guardian) keeps a really useful website which has a list of what I call anagrindicators (portmantastic!), but CLOCK isn’t on there.

This is a long rant – I wrote this entry during the week and scheduled it since I’m not going to be near a computer at all on Sunday – I’m sure questions can be handled by commenters, and any mistakes should be corrected on Monday.

Away we go…

Across
1 PUT CASE: Both parts can be “set” – hiddden under CASE in Chambers, the definition is “Take for example”
6 EASTS: AS in (SET)*
10 ATHELETE’S FOOT: (HAT,FEELS,TOO)* then the first letter of Tight
11 TRIER,ARCH: TRIER = test is hidden down there in the Chambers definitions
14 SPRY: first letter of Street then PRY
15 HAWKEY: a cow with a white face (found under HAWKED) and a harvest supper (found under HOCKEY)
16 LAG,UNE
18 PRO(backing),ROGUE(terror)
21 PAI(d),TRICK: another word for PARTRIDGE
23 AVOSET: SET after A and half of VOLE
24 HAULER: U in HALER
25 BERK(s): pretty common insult in Australia in the 70s
28 ELO RATING: (ON,TRIAL) in EG. A rating based on new wave rock capabilities in chess
29 BASTARD TITLE: TARD(slow),TIT(mean person) in BASLE
30 ALMUG: L in A MUG
31 E,STATED
 
Down
1 PATCH UP: (w)ATCH in PUP
2 THIR: THIRST without the ends of StouT
3 C,LEE,KIT
4 (f)AERY
5 STAGY(affected),RITE(liturgy)
6 ESCHAR: (SEARCH)*
7 SOLPUGA: PUG in SO,LA
8 TOURNURES: RE in (RUNOUTS)*
9 STEY: YET,S all reversed
12 CAN,AVER,A,L: nice clue!
13 CLOCHARDS: one of my last in – it’s CLOCK cut (CLOCK = notice is way down there in the definition list), and HARDS are refuses of hemp. You learn something every two weeks
17 DOIRISM: ORISON without ON in DIM
19 OPUNTIA: anagram of (UP TO A POINT) minus POT
20 ENRAGED: this was my favorite clue of the lot – anagram of GEAR in END, with CLOCK as a great indicator
22 REF(official),LAG(delay)
25 BUB,A: didn’t realise BUB for tot was Australian, but I’m very familiar with it, being a displaced Aussie. Last week I said “Jiggery-pokery” to a room of US Humanities professors who thought I’d made it up – later in the week a visitor from Oxford used the same term. Never really hits me that some terms are local
26 TATT: A(are) in three T’s
27 PITT: IT,T under P

7 comments on “Mephisto 2719 – Tim Moorey”

  1. I was quite glad I wasn’t blogging this one. I entered a number without really seeing the construction (similar experience today!). I struggled to see CLOCK as an anagrind and tried to equate “rage” with “gear” in some other way using CLOCK=see, but failed in that. I can see CLOCK=hit but is that really an anagrind?
      1. Hi George

        I’ve sent you a note via Facebook about blogging Mephisto at the end of this month

  2. Yes, this was very difficult – I’ve only just managed to finish off the last couple of clues with a cheat to get STAGYRITE.
    I was a bit surprised by CLOCK, but remembered Jimbo’s comment about the liberal approach to anagrinds in Mephisto. Pretty liberal, this one!
    I was more puzzled by 1dn, where the small dog seems to be biter rather than bit. No?
    1. Under the verb to bite, Chambers offers among others to penetrate and to grip.  So, the clue is ambiguous but that is surely one of the main points of the cryptic crossword.  Ambiguous answers are also perfectly acceptable except where the sole ambiguity occurs in an unchecked cell.  These may annoy those solving against the clock but never those like me who like to savour a puzzle over an afternoon.

      Also, I see nothing liberal about hit as an anagram indicator.  It is listed in Chambers Crossword Dictionary as such and looking in Chambers I pick out the definition to affect painfully as fully justifying this.

      1. Yes, I’ll accept “penetrate”.
        As for your broader point about ambiguity, I’m not sure I agree with you. As I understand it these puzzles are deliberately Ximenean, and one of the things I like about them is the precision and lack of ambiguity in the wordplay, which allows for the deliberate obscurity of some of the words.
        I still can’t come up with a sentence in which the word “bite” would mean something suggesting insertion, but this is irrelevant. Chambers says it can mean “penetrate”, and Chambers is the authority, so ATCH is penetrating PUP. There’s no ambiguity whatsoever: I just wasn’t looking in the right place.
        Incidentally I never solve Mephisto against the clock: that would be too depressing!

        Edited at 2012-10-16 03:54 pm (UTC)

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