Mephisto 2741 – Paul McKenna

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Paul McKenna sent me an early version of this one to test solve, so I had a “week off” this week. I found it pretty straightforward and a fun solve, though it was a strange coincidence that I had run into BELLWEATHER and SLUGHORNE in a non-crossword form recently, and LIONCELLE (or one of its variants) was in a Listener not too long ago.

Nice grid in this one, with 90 degree as well as the customary 180 degree rotation.

Away we go…

Across
1 TIFT: F in TIT(worthless horse)
4 HEAD,CASE
10 RHUBARBING: H in RUB then (BRIAN)*, G
11 A,BROACH(tap)
13 A,GIO(creek)
15 TIRLS: SLR(self-loading rifle), IT(one chasing, say in tag) all reversed
16 ELZEVIR: ZEV(Zero Emission Vehicle) in (LIRE)*
17 HALO: hidden in sucH A LOok
19 SLUGHORNE: LUG(vegetable box) in SHORN(stripped),(pin)E. This came up quite randomly in a screenwriting class with words involving SLUG. It’s not in Chambers, but the line of a screenplay setting up the shot is called a SLUGLINE
22 MONEY BELT: MO(a short time) then (BENTLEY)*. My parents insist on using one of these while traveling, which leads to much awkwardness and fumbling
23 Y,ELM
24 CNEMIAL: (MELANIC)*
26 STYLE: L in STYE(variant of STY)
29 OHMS: the frank on a letter, and the measure of resistance
30 LAPITHS: PITH(courage) in LAS(h)(scourge, endless)
31 EVOLVEMENT: (LOVE)*,M in EVENT
32 OR,NAME,NT
33 SP,AS
 
Down
1 TRAVESTY: RAV in TESTY. RAV=TEACHER I don’t recall before but now it’s popped up twice in a matter of days
2 FURY: U in FRY(young)
3 T-BONE: B in TONE
4 HAAF: HAAR without the R, then F
5 ABHORRENT: H(andler) in (BOAR)* then RENT(let)
6 DITT,ANY
7 A-G-GRACE
8 SHILLELAGH: And happy St P’s Day… SHILL(decoy), then LAG in EH
9 EROS: SORE reversed
12 BELL(ring),WET(moderate conservative),HER(heir – from heres): There’s a local company by that name – a friend of mine recently did an advertisement for them
14 LIONCELLE: ONCE in LILLE
18 O,UT(as),LAST(shoemaker’s model),’S
20 UGLY MEN: LYME(lyam-hound) in (GUN)*
21 HOLE,SOM(a)
25 MAIMS: AIM in MS
26 SOLO: O in SLO(b)
27 SPET: P in SET
28 STEP: hidden reversed in pupPET Show

2 comments on “Mephisto 2741 – Paul McKenna”

  1. Thanks for the blog. My second Mephisto, I found this one a lot tougher to penetrate but once I had several solutions it fell into place nicely.

    Pretty much all of the clues seemed (to me) to be of the same difficulty, a nice brain workout. Thanks mr McKenna. Spot-on.

    Edited at 2013-03-17 11:59 am (UTC)

  2. Nothing too difficult here and I had a easy run through with the first 3 across clues going straight in and hence a lot of the early downs

    Today’s is a bit harder

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