Mephisto 2794 by Tim Moorey – A Load of Balls

Posted on Categories Mephisto
A relatively easy puzzle with two irritations.

After the obscure sportsmen of a couple of weeks ago we now have a schoolboyish contraction of the name of a further obscure sportsman. Quite why our setters believe that we share their obsession with ball games I can’t imagine.

And speaking of ball games we have yet another reference to the clownish politician Ed Balls. The first time was mildly amusing but his repeated appearance is causing me to yawn.

Across
1 BRIGHT,SPARK – B(RIGHTS-PAR)K; book=BK;
11 DEDAL – DE(D)AL; date=D;
12 HERD – HE(a)RD;
13 EPITHEM – E-PIT-HEM; set on=PIT (against);
14 NUGAE – (harangued – hard)*; about=anagrind;
16 ABIGAIL – sounds like “a big ale”;
17 INTERDASH – (tarnished)*;
18 LAIRDS – LA-IR-DS; document signed=DS;
20 STATIN – STATI(o)N;
22 DONSIE – D-ON-SI(t)E; “t” from T(ired);
24 MONACT – (combatant – bat)*; bat from COM(bat)ANT;
26 INDONESIA – IND(ONE-S)IA;
28 DETRAIN – DET(R)AIN;
30 GREIN – GR-E-I-N: Greece=GR; Spain=E; Norway=N; independence=I;
31 TAMARAO – TAMAR-A-O;
32 EIRE – E(MP)IRE;
33 SCADS – herring=shads then change h=hot to c=cold;
34 COMEDOGENIC – COME-DOG-CINE reversed;
 
Down
2 REPO – hidden reversed (pr)OPER(ty);
3 IDIST – I(DI’S)T;
4 GATHERS – G-ATHERS presumably where ATHERS is I’m guessing short for (Mike) Atherton – poor clue;
5 TREADS – T-READS; (bird) mates (copulates) is definition;
6 SAMBAS – S(h)AM-BAS(h); a dance my knees no longer alow me to do;
7 PENISTONE – PENIS-TONE;
8 REGATTA – (watergate – w – e)*; w and e from (w)ATERGAT(e);
9 KRAIT – TI-ARK reversed;
10 ADELANTADOS – A-DEL-ANT(ADO)S; are=A; state=DEL; workers=ANTS;
11 DEVIL-DODGER – Mephisto=the Devil;
15 ORDINANCE – ORD(I)NANCE; independent=I;
19 IN,UTERO – (routine)*;
21 ANELACE – ANE-LA(n)CE; one (old)=ANE;
23 EDITED – ED-IT-ED; two further references to buffoonish politician ED Balls; garbled=EDITED?;
24 MONACO – MO(CAN reversed)O; John=toilet=CAN; low=MOO;
25 XERIC – X-ERIC; kiss=X; fine=ERIC;
27 SKRAN – NARKS reversed;
29 CADI – I-DA-C(onfound) reversed;

12 comments on “Mephisto 2794 by Tim Moorey – A Load of Balls”

  1. I wasn’t so fussed by ATHERS in the clue – he seems to be a regular part of commentry/punditry now and regularly referred to by that moniker. Nothing too too difficult in here, only a few checks to the dictionary to verify wordplay.
  2. Thank you jimbo. I share your frustration with obscure sporting references (which for me includes anything to do with soccer or cricket).

    I think we have had the NARC/NARK controversy before, but I thought in 27 the sneaks had to be NARKS not NARCS, giving SKRAN.

    A recently broadcast “Top Gear” episode was filmed in Penistone (for obvious reasons) – I wouldn’t have heard of the place otherwise!

    1. SKRAN is the intended solution, and I’d say that NARK was better than NARC for “sneak” by a wide enough margin to insist on this answer.
    2. I should just add that despite not sharing his interest in soccer and cricket, I always enjoy Tim Moorey’s puzzles, both Sunday Times and Mephistos. Also my daughter is working through his book as an introduction to the dark arts!
  3. “our setters”? Only one of the three Mephisto setters has an interest in football and cricket that’s strong enough to influence the content of his clues. Informal versions of words are meat and drink to cryptic clue writers, so I can’t see why the nickname of a fairly recent England captain shouldn’t be used.

    As far as I can tell from Google searches for “Ed” and “Balls” on this blog, he has been used in 3 Sunday Times puzzles so far, all this year – one ST Crossword, and two Mephistos, which happen to be the last two reviewed by Jimbo.

    garbled=EDITED? – see “edit” in Chambers “to garble or cook up”

    Edited at 2014-03-24 08:47 am (UTC)

    1. Peter, last week in 2793 nobody could fathom how 30A UNROYAL worked. Any ideas please?
  4. Keep flagging the “easy” ones as easy, Jim. I managed to finish this, albeit with much help from your blog. Learning enough of the dark arts of Mephisto in the next five years or so should just about enable me to another string to my crossword bow for my retirement.
  5. Первый вариант полного описания объявления + два варианта

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