Mephisto 2767 – Tim Moorey

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Occasionally Tim Moorey throws a little twist into his Mephisto puzzles – it’s been a while since he last did this from memory (maybe Mephisto 2500?). When I solved 1 across and 9 down I thought there might have been something going on, and it appears our setter has bromide on the brain, with it appearing in four symmetrically placed positions (one for each definition appearing in Chambers) and once as a definition.

Why bromide? Who knows… as an inorganic chemist by trade I’m most familiar with copper bromide, which is used as a very stable form of the copper(I) cation (dissolve it in water long enough and you will get solid copper and copper (II) cations in a process known as disproportionation).

Anyway, this gave me the outside of the grid pretty quickly, and I had most of it done without a dictionary (but with Bradfords) in the departure lounge of Charlotte Airport – on the same day I completely forgot it was my turn to do the daily. Whoops.

The best was yet to come, as it turns out my printout left off the last two clues. For the past few months the Mephisto has printed in its entirety on one sheet of US letter paper (it’s a little wider and a bit shorter than A4). So I had to wait until I got home to get the last few.

Away we go…

Across
1 BROMIDE: O,M(an) in BRIDE(young lady in front of a train)
6 KA(serve),BOB
10 PAN(face),HANDLER
11 STUDIOS: STUDIOUS without one of the U’s
13 NAZE: sounds like NAYS
14 PLENUM: EN(space) in PLUM(choice)
15 STORGE: EG, ROTS(jokes) all reversed
16 ALFS: (h)ALFS – MCP being Male Chauvinist Pig
17 BID,I
19 SHEERED: ERE in SHED
20 ROSSERS: anagram of RESISTORS without IT
22 R,ORE
23 EARL: REAL with the R(take) moved to the right
24 A-PER-SE: I think this is a triple definition, the first being “A”
26 MANTEL: ML(miles) with ANTE(advance pay) inside. I’ll admit I had to Google it to find Hilary Mantel and decide if this was MANTEM, MANTEL or MANTES
28 NOPE: OPEN with the N at the front
29 ‘S,TODGER: this is the same definition as 1 across, not sure I’ve seen that done in a crossword before
30 DEMO(model),CRIT(review),US(ut supra)
31 E-ZINE: Z(Zambia IVR code) in EINE
32 BROMIDE: anagram of (platitud)E,R,DIMBO, an all-in-one clue as Tim Moorey calls it
 
Down
1 BOS’N’S: S in BONS
2 ROTATIONAL: OT(old Testament) in RATIONAL
3 MADERISATION: MADE then IS(another IVR) In RATION
4 I,NIT
5 D,HOLES
6 KNOLLED: NOLL(top of head) in KED(fly)
7 AD,REFERENDUM
8 BLINS: NIL reversed in BS(balance sheet)
9 BROMIDE: B then RIDE around O,M
12 SUPERS,PEED: I do get a giggle when bodily functions sneak into a crossword. Monk in last Saturday’s Independent got a surprising one into the wordplay
17 BROMIDE: (DIM,BORE)*
18 TERENCE: RE(on) clothed in TENCE(l)
21 SANTIR: ANTI in SR
23 EN AMI: ENA next to MI(alternate for ME in music)
25 EERIE: BEERIER without the ends
27 KOTO: KYOTO without the Y

3 comments on “Mephisto 2767 – Tim Moorey”

  1. Very similar experience and also at a lost to explain the halogenous leanings. I associate Tim with the more arts-classical end of the setting spectrum and so found this altogether odd.
  2. I parsed 24A as A (first-class) + PERSE (blue).

    No idea as to the reason for the multiple bromides.

    Was also surprised/amused by Monk last week, especially as I first tried to spell it with a Y and then thought “Hang on …”

  3. I can’t help on the bromides, but it made life easier after the first two.
    Perhaps I’m missing something but there are a couple of things in here that – rather surprisingly – don’t appear to be in Chambers: d (or D) for “down” and KNOLLED.

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