Mephisto 2789 – Paul McKenna

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
I found this one a little more tricky than recent offerings. Still unsure of one or two of the wordplays, but hopefully they will come as I write this up. As usual, Paul McKenna has me trawling the outer reaches of Chambers for wordplay elements.

Nope there’s still one unexplained. And I’mm off to a vaudeville/burlesque show so there might be a bit ofa lag before I can update, so check comments!

Away we go…

Across
1 PSCHENT: SCH in PENT(abbreviation for PENTECOST)
7 F,ACTS(book of the Bible after John)
11 SCORDATO: (CAR,STOOD)*
12 ATROPA: A,PORT,A all reversed
13 DIAN: 1 in Desperate DAN
14 DART(plan),RE
15 MNEMON: M(noon, midi) then NO,MEN reversed
16 SPECIFIC NAME: (CF,MINCE,PIES)*
18 PASH(infatuation),TUN
22 NAPPERS: A(acceleration),P,P(Pedals in music),ER(show of hesitation) in N(new),S(series). I rather like these “letter by letter breakdown” clues, and recently submitted one to a clue-writing competition… watch it not do very well
24 STEP ON THE GAS: STEP ON for rung just after, then THE GAS for informal chat
26 IMPALA: I think this is IMP for the emperor and then A LA for a French “Before” Well I had it part right – A for BEFORE then LA is THE in French… Paul McKenna has caught me out once with the A for before
27 FINITE: IT(je ne sais quoi) in FINE(brandy)
29 THAW: ref John THAW
30 ALSO,ON
31 EAGLE(lectern), EYE(sounds like “aye”)
32 DREST: D is the part of the snooker table (the chalk D), then REST for remain
33 DISMAYS: MAY in DISS(a Norfolk market town)
 
Down
1 PR,ADS
2 SET APRT: PATE’S reversed on ART(method)
3 CUR,R: if you’re doing barred crosswords, get used to R=take(Recipe)
4 HOOTCH: HOOT(care, as in “give a”),C(about),H(hard)
5 ESPRIT FOLLET: anagram of FT,EPISTOLER and (dreadfu)L
6 TORMINA: TO(before),RM(service), IN,A
7 FRANCOPHILES: anagram of S(sabbath),IN,CHAPEL,FOR
8 ADDEND: before END, A(academician),DD(give as gift – dono dedit)
9 CAIMAN: AIM(mean) in CAN
10 SONNETS: S,TENNOS reversed
17 MORA(l),TORY
18 POSITED: SITE in POD
19 UNNAMED: not sure I completely understand this one – is it a double definition? See comments, it’s a triple!
20 CEPAGE: APE reversed in CGE
21 SPA,W,L,S
23 PEN(stall),SUM
24 SENAS: SANE(all there),’S(is) all reversed
28 I,O,TA

5 comments on “Mephisto 2789 – Paul McKenna”

  1. Re 26A, I don’t speak French well but I couldn’t think of an instance where “a la” meant the same as “before”, so I had this as A = ante (=before, in Latin, e.g. in A.M.), then LA = “the” in French.

    Can’t help with 19D, though.

  2. I didn’t really notice when solving, but then I didn’t have to blog it :). I think it’s actually a triple definition: Anonymous / nark wishes to be ___ / not placed in speech – the third one referring to the opposite of one of the definitions of “name” in Chambers – “to make known the name of (someone implicated in a crime, an accomplice, etc) to the police, etc”.

    Quite a confusing clue – normally a blank like that indicates a compound anagram (it does in Azed anyway).

    I didn’t find this one too tricky, but I was on a roll on Thursday when I solved it, having polished off two Listeners earlier (the eXternal – too late to send off – and the BeRo, which I did send off).

  3. Thanks for the blog – a few here I couldn’t parse. I think mohn2 must be right about 26ac.
    I thought 19d was supposed to be a homophone for “unaimed”.
  4. No real problems with this – middle of the road puzzle. I had 26A as mohn2 and 19D as linxit and agree a bit confusing as clues go.

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