Mephisto 2736 by Don Manley

Posted on Categories Mephisto
A straightforward puzzle

Across
1 MUCOR – MUC(k)-OR;
5 APOCOPE – A-PO(CO)PE; CO=Conscientous Objector;
11 ALABAMAN – A-LAB-A-MAN;
12 NESS – (anything) + NESs = a quality eg softness;
13 PELLUCID – P(ELL)U(t)-CID;
14 GOUTTE – GO-UTTE(r); total=utter as in “utter chaos”;
16 ESILE – E(n)SILE; nuclear=n;
18 MAINOR – MA(I)NOR;
19 CALTROPS – C(A-LT)ROPS;
22 GROO-GROO – sounds like “grew-grew”;
25 HEGIRA – HE(GI)RA;
27 ELECT – ELECT(RA); RA=royal Academy;
28 EARTHY – (“the carry on” without “corn”)*;
29 BASICITY – BA(SIC(k)-IT)Y;
30 MANN – MANN(ered);
31 UNSEAMED – (“one amused” without “o”)*;
32 THANAGE – THAN-AGE;
33 DNASE – E-SAND reversed;
 
Down
1 MANGE – MANGE(r);
2 CASUAL – CAS(U)A-L;
3 OBSTETRICIAN – (“antibiotic scared em” without “a medic”)*;
4 RAPTOR – R(APT-O)R; RR from (bu)RR(ow);
6 PALAMPORE – (pp or a meal)*; p=page;
7 COUSIN-GERMAN – (romance)* surrounds USING;
8 ORCINE – (nice or)*;
9 PHILOMOT – (“photo film” without “f”)*;
10 ELDERS – ELD-ERS; old word for old=ELD; vetch=ERS;
15 ELO,RATING – EL(OR)ATING;
17 DANELAGH – (GALEN-A-D all reversed)-H; physician=GALEN; ;
20 SHEBAT – SHE-BAT;
21 EGESTA – EG-ESTA(te);
23 OKAYED – O(KAY)ED; old word for quay=KAY;
24 RETAMA – (“headmaster” without “shed”)*;
26 HYNDE – HY(N)DE; name=N;

5 comments on “Mephisto 2736 by Don Manley”

  1. Jim,

    My first complete Mephisto!! I managed to get a good proportion of these straightaway (Mucor, Mange, Alabaman, Elect, Unseamed, Raptor, Ness, Casual, Elo Rating, Okayed) which gave me sufficient letters to solve the rest using Onelook and thumbing through Chambers. Turning the pages of the red book is a fun exercise isn’t it – it’s amazing what words you find in there that you’ve never heard of! – particularly when a word you’ve made up from elements of wordplay turns out to be correct (e.g. Mainor, Caltrops, Groo-Groo)!

    LOI Apocope.

    Thanks for explaining Obstetrician and Elders. Both went in from definition and checkers – couldn’t begin to explain the wordplay for either!

    Re Retama – I don’t have my copy of the puzzle to hand but remember thinking the direction to remove “shed” from “headmaster” before anagramming was missing.

    Re Orcine – couldn’t find this word referenced in any dictionary but the checkers didn’t offer any alternative.

    Daniel

    1. Hello Daniel and congratulations on finishing one. I hope there will be many more!

      At 24D RETAMA the clue says “Headmaster’s put in order for this plant shed” – translation – “If you anagram headmaster you will get RETAMA + shed”. Anagram indicators can be rather more subtle here than you’re used to.

      You’ll find ORCINE under “orcinol”. You quite often have to root around a bit in Chambers (known as C)

      Yes, C is terrific fun. Early advice I was given when looking up a word was to always read the half dozen entries around it – a good way of openingn your eyes. I suggest you take a moment to read all the entries for the single letters (A, B, C and so on) – they have many diverse meanings and are a godsend to the setters

      Finally, never hesitate to ask – George and I will be delighted to help you

      1. Hi Jim,

        Thanks for your reply, encouragement and advice.

        I found this week’s Mephisto a lot harder. Solved 19 of the 32 clues over a couple of nights then called time and looked up most of the rest on theanswerbank.co.uk. Even now I have a couple of gaps and I look forward to you or George explaining all on Sunday.

        One further question I have is about hyphenation. Would man-of-war, say, be enumerated (8)?

        Thanks,

        Daniel

        1. Yes, hyphens are not shown in bar crosswords, nor are actual word lengths in multi-word answers
  2. I didn’t have a lot of time last week, so it was nice to have one that fell pretty readily. Some familiar words from recentish barred-grid puzzles with ESILE, ELO RATING, GROO-GROO (and it’s various friends with similar spellings) and HEGIRA coming readily to mind.

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