Mephisto 2764, 18 August 2013

Solving Time: Quite a while, an hour or more. I did the crossword in odd moments over several days, so no time recorded. I found it somewhat harder than average, but maybe I’m just out of practice, not having done them very regularly lately. There are a couple I’m having trouble parsing, suggestions welcome..

This is a rare Mephisto blog outing for me, Jimbo having kindly done a Club Monthly blog for me last month. The two crosswords have a lot in common. I think individual clues for the Mephisto are often somewhat harder, since not only the answer itself but also elements of the cluing can be obscure; in addition it has more clues, but this is compensated by the lack of black squares, which means far more checkers to play with. On average there is probably not much between them, but Mephistos seem to vary quite widely in difficulty. A dictionary of course is essential for both, and Mephisto is unusual in specifying which, namely Chambers 12th Edition.

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as *(–)

Across
1 agila – I + L in stove = AGA
6 spit up – P(RESSURE) in SIT UP
11 matryoshki – *(MAK(E) HISTORY). I carelessly wrote in matryoshka at first, which held me up a bit towards the end
12 amation – AMATI + leg = ON, the cricket reference du jour.
14 anti – three notes, A + N + TI
15 gherao – E(NTERPRISE) in HR, in *(GOA). When I started work in the ’60s we had a Staff Dept., and for the life of me I don’t understand why we don’t now. How could “Personnel” or “Human Resources” possible be seen as improvements?
16 paradise lost – A(DAM) in *(LOTS PRAISED). Hands up who else spent far too long trying to fit F(IRST) in somewhere. “Work” seems to be doing double duty here as def. and also as anagrind
17 rsi – I suppose this is an &lit, as well as being hidden in adveRSIty. I never solved it, not quite recognising the definition, but one of the nice things about the mephisto is that you don’t have to solve every clue
20 amanita – I suppose it’s A(MA)NITA, but why the “brought back?” I suppose it could be A TINA rev. Strictly speaking Amanita is not a mushroom but a mushroom genus covering many species, some poisonous, some edible, and some both, such as everybody’s favourite mushroom fly agaric, or magic mushroom
22 oinking – O + (DR)INKING. A nice clue, which made me smile
24 del – a triple def., since del is an abbreviation for delta, a differential operator, for delegate, and also for delineavit, latin for “he/she drew it.”
25 safecracking – peter = SAFE + very fast = CRACKING. A peter is a trunk or safe, and a peterman is a safe-cracker. Victorian thieves’ cant
27 isabel – Can’t quite parse this one I’m afraid. Mack Sennet had a relationship with (Ma)bel Normand, could that be something to do with it? It seems unlikely and the only other partner I can think of for mack is whisky! Isabel is a colour, dingy yellowish grey or drab. The (possible) etymology of this word is worth looking up!
30 in se – person held in contempt = INSE(CT)
31 Agutter – A(DULT) + GUTTER. You don’t have to be dead to be in the ST crosswords!
32 El Salvador – *(SAD ALL OVER)
33 dittay – DIT (to stop or block) + the river TAY. Dittay is an indictment or charge, at least if you are a very old Scottish lawyer it is
34 swies – SWI(P)E. Swy is an Australian gambling game, so Greg Norman is just a representive of the region. Couldn’t find “swies” in Chambers though.
Down
1 alaap – rock = AA in old record = A LP. Alap/alaap is the intro for a raga
2 gymnasiast – *(AGAINST MY S(ON))
3 latian – LAT(V)IAN
4 at it – It seems to be (F)AT (N)IT, or twit perhaps, or even tit, but where do the cops come in?
5 grobian – *(A BORING)
7 pothead – dd
8 isle – (A)ISLE
9 theroid – champion = HERO in mood = TID
10 pivotal – O in *(ITV), in partner = PAL
13 fastenseve – secures = FASTENS + first lady = EVE
17 rosined – DENIS + before = OR. The artist in question being Maurice Denis, I assume
18 infaust – IN FAUST, Mephisto(pheles) being the devil in the Faust legend. Made me smile
19 micella – the rodent MICE seem clear enough, and the def. is “unit of a chemistry lab,” but how to get “quite preposterous” to be LLA, I can’t say unless perhaps it is an anagram of quite = ALL?
21 mgangas – *(AM(O)NG GAS)
23 ski tow – SKIT + on = O + (T)W(O).
26 germs – R(ECIPE) in brilliant = GEM + S(AINSBURYS)
28 buat – only = BUT containing A, the original abbreviation for Argon now superseded by Ar
29 puds – POUNDS, with ON removed..

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

5 comments on “Mephisto 2764, 18 August 2013”

  1. Re 27, it’s IS MABEL, with the deletion of the M being signified by “without a bit of make-up”, “Mack and Mabel” being a musical about the two people you mentioned.

    Re 4, the wordplay is as you say – Chambers has cop as “a top or head of anything”

    Re 19, preposterous is used in the sense of “literally inverted” as per Chambers, and quite = ALL.

  2. Thanks Jerry – you doing this has been a real help in getting over the holiday and thanks mohn2 for filling in the gaps.
  3. Agreed this was a toughie and I did myself no favors by putting in CHIN UP and MICELLE without thinking about the wordplay, which is a rookie mistake for the Mephisto.

    I had no idea who Jenny AGUTTER was, and agonized forever about the answer before popping it in and checking the interweebs.

  4. 16A: Another &lit, so the whole thing is doing double duty …

    20A: I tried exactly the same two wrong girls myself. The reversal is of (AT=by, INA – a diminutive of “____ina” names)

    34A: SWIES as a plural is justified by the “Spelling rules” section at the beginning of Chambers. Plurals that follow these rules are not mentioned.

    Peter Biddlecombe, Sunday Times Crossword Editor

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