I got through most of this before having to dive in to the dictionaries and electronic aids, so I’d call it easy-medium (if BEQ is looking in, “easyum” works well here) on the Mephisto scale. There’s not that many obscure words and the wordplay is consistently clear.
I laughed at 29 across, remembering an old quote of the Sunday Times Crossword editor that a case is either an INRO or an ETUI, and both are staples of US Crosswords (high vowel ratio being prized in all-checked grids). Australians familiar with the work of Chris Lilley may have also gotten a giggle out of 6 down (“slap my elbow you do it like this”)
Away we go…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | MEADOWS: ADO in MEWS |
| 7 | C AND B: short for Caught and Bowled, a way to get out in cricket. I think “noted” because C and B are both notes – CAN then BD(bound) reversed |
| 11 | SUMOTORI: MOTOR(nerve) in SUI(t) – a sumo wrestler |
| 12 | PRATER: RAT(one like Judas) in PER(a) |
| 13 | OLLA: ALL,O(round) reversed |
| 14 | U,PRO,LL(pair of lecturers) |
| 15 | USNEAS: US(“one” to an editor), NEA(t),S |
| 16 | PHANTASIASTS: (A,SAINT’S,PATHS)* |
| 18 | FO,V,E,ATE |
| 22 | AREOLES: OLE in ARES |
| 24 | LEAD IN PRAYER: IN,P in (LAY,READER)* |
| 26 | ‘S,CURVY |
| 27 | FAR,IN,A |
| 29 | INRO: hidden in vIN ROuge |
| 30 | 1,BAD(good),AT |
| 32 | SQUIRR,EL |
| 33 | DOE EYED: sounds like DOUGH EYED |
| Down | |
| 1 | MOP UP: UP reversed (pick-up) in POM reversed. Ahhh, tonight at the SCG there’ll be a lot of accusing people of pommyness |
| 2 | EARP(lawman Wyatt),HONE(sharpen): I liked the definition – EARPHONES may be referred to as “a pair of cans” |
| 3 | A,JAR(quarrel) |
| 4 | DITONE: IT in DONE |
| 5 | OSELTAMIVIRS: (I’VE,MORALISTS)* – I believe this could be a new word in the 12th edition of Chambers |
| 6 | ‘S,MOUSER: surprised to see the ‘S device used twice in the one puzzle |
| 7 | CONSIDERABLE: (BOD,LARCENIES)* |
| 8 | ATONAL: TON,A in AL |
| 9 | NOLESS: take the B out of NO BLESS |
| 10 | BI,ASSES: BI as a chinese response used to block was new to me |
| 17 | TWEENAGE: (AGENT)* with WEE inside – mind you it’s not just tweenagers that are annoying kids |
| 18 | FALSISM: L,SIS in FAM(familiar) |
| 19 | TANYARD: DRAT(cry of pique) reversed around ANY(some) |
| 20 | TAURUS: AU in TRUS(t) |
| 21 | ADROIT: RO(run out, more cricket) in ADIT |
| 23 | O,A,RAGE: didn’t realise “rage” for party was Australian |
| 25 | RATED: T in DEAR reversed |
| 28 | IDLY: hidden in saID LYricist |
I thought C and B was “noted” just because this abbreviation would be how a scorer would make a note of it. Mind you I know very little about cricket.
20/36 with most of the missing ones in the right hand side. Thanks George for explaining everything.
Must remember that ‘one’ can be A unlike in the Times cryptic and that answers can be multi-word.
Loved earphone = one can.
Mephisto should tell you when the answer is multi-word with spaces (eg for 24A in this puzzle), but hyphens are ignored, so as a convenient example “multi-word” would just be (9).
5D was in the 11th edition too, but has been added in the last decade or so.