Mephisto 2793 – Don Manley

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Hi all – I’m working in Dallas this weekend and am not likely to get a chance to write up this weekend’s Mephisto until Sunday afternoon my time (late Sunday night UK time). So here’s a placeholder, feel free to discuss or query the hive mind.

Sorry about the extended delay – should have done this before I left, but oh well… there’s some fun and unusual words in here clued in the typical Don Manley style. I found the bottom half went in a lot more readily than the top half, though some of that was not reading one of the clues properly.

Away we go…

Across
1 MED,(l)AK(e),A
5 BABA,CO
9 A LA DEROBEE: A LAD then ‘ERO and BEE – there’s lots of accents on this in Chambers
11 REFLECT: L in REFECT
12 REDAN: a different style of hidden clue, take four letters away from either side of secuRE DANgers
13 INTAKE: TA(volunteers) in INKE(d)
14 TO-RENT: RE in TENT
15 VEENA: V then E in ENA
18 RESORCIN: RESCIN(d) surrounding OR
20 ULTRAIST: (RITUALS)*
26 PETRI: PET then RI for the Royal Institution
27 A,GREED
28 AZRAIL: A and Z are the extreme characters, then RAIL
29 GIANT: AN in GIT
30 UNROYAL: anagram of VOLUNTARY – TV
31 ACOELOMATE: 0 in ACE, LO, MATE
32 ME,LEES
33 EVENER: VENEER with one of the E’s moved to the front
 
Down
1 MARIVAUDAGE: anagram of (ADMIRE,A,GUV,A) – in my printout this looked a lot like “admire a guy” so I couldn’t get this for a while
2 DAFTEST: A,FT in DES,T(own)
3 ADLAND: ADD surrounding LAN(e)
4 ARCED: CEDAR with A,R(oot) moved to the top
5 BOTTES: BOTTLES without L
6 B,EERY
7 AEDES: A, SEDES(seat) with the leading S removed
8 CRANKIER: RANK, I.E. in C,R
10 ANTON PILLER: (PLANNER,TOIL)* – a new phrase to me, but the wordplay was clear
16 EULOGISE: anagram of GUILE,SO + the last letter of insincerE
17 NOT: TON reversed
18 RAX: sounds like RACKS
19 CATAYAN: A,TAY in CAN
21 INDUES: (UNDIES)*
22 ME,ROME
23 GRAAL: GAL surrounding RA
24 FEN,CE
25 W,AN(g)LE

6 comments on “Mephisto 2793 – Don Manley”

  1. Can somebody please explain 30A. I can see the anagram of “voluntary” with TV removed but what is the construction of “so not splendid TV may show? And where is the definition?
  2. I couldn’t parse the clue properly, either, but am sure the definition is ‘not splendid’.
  3. I’m clueless about 30a too- don’t crossword definitions always have to be at the start or end of the clue? Could someone also please explain 17 down to me as well- don’t understand the ‘having close cut hair’
  4. It looks like a twist on one of those comparative anagrams (is that the right phrase?) beloved of Azed and Azed clue competition entrants, i.e. unroyal + tv is an anagram of voluntary. Except he/they would normally use “this” instead of the definition “not splendid”.
  6. From memory, the official name is “composite anagram” (not “compound” as I’ve often thought). My reading is that “working” is the anagram indicator, and that “so” is doing the job often done by “this”, which seems OK to me for an adj rather than a noun. I don’t think the def has to be simply “this” – for a noun, I’m sure I’ve also seen “this [synonym]”

    This is an example of a case where the clue can be written so that the definition is not at the beginning or the end of the clue. It can also be done by putting the def between alternative wordplays. This “rule” is either derived from observation of 99.something% of clues, or imposed by some setters on themselves.

    Edited at 2014-03-24 10:15 am (UTC)

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