Mephisto 2800 by Tim Moorey – From Bosch to Rabbie

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A very enjoyable, reasonably tough, solve. Some interesting words and more unusal anagrinds and containment indicators with a couple of very good “lift and separate” clues. I didn’t know the literary society but luckily had come across its constituent parts before which helped with the anagram.

Across
1 GIPS – GIPS(y); unconventional=gipsy; Churchill College Cambridge is a relatively new College largely focused on sciences;
4 IMPASTOD – (moist pad)*;
9 EMBUSQUE – (queues)* surrounds MB; crowd=mob then “no stomach” gives “MB”; old draft dodger;
11 PILIFEROUS – PI(LIFER)OUS;
12 ODINISTS – OD(IN)IST’S;
15 SOLDI – ID-LOS all reversed; old word for praise=LOS; old Italian coins=brass;
16 STREGA – ST(RE-G)A; on=RE; German=G; railway station=STA; an Italian liquer you can’t buy with soldi;
17 LIPOID – LI(POI)D; Hawaiian dish=POI;
18 T-CELLS – T(C)ELLS;
20 OPEPES – O(PEP-E)S; very large=OS;
23 OHMIC – OH-MIC; Military Intelligence Corps=MIC; electrical resistance is measured on ohms;
25 BANGSTER – BAN(GS)TER; gracious heartless=GS;
26 BASKET,CASE – B(ASK-ETC)ASE; stopped=surrounds indicator;
27 DIPNOANS – DIP-NO-ANS;
28 DUNNOCKS – DUN-NOCKS sounds like “ox”;
29 TOST – stagger in St Andrews=tost then move “s”=shilling=bob to give TOST;
 
Down
1 GENOAS – GEN-O(A)S; at half=A; reduce=adapt, adjust;
2 I’M,A,DUTCHMAN – (admit a n=new chum)*; must=frenzy=anagrind; “If that was offside I’m a Dutchman”; phrase from 1500s when all northern Europeans were “Dutchmen” and thus not to be trusted;
3 SUINT – SUI(N)T; hearts perhaps=(playing card) SUIT;
4 ISLING – IS-(NIL reversed)-G; key=isle and “to isle” is to set in an isle (see C);
5 PUFTALOON – sounds like “puffed”-A-LOON; tart=prostitute=LOON; this time Perth is in Oz for a fried cake;
6 SCROOP – POOR-CS all reversed;
7 TROLLOPE – T(ROLL)OP-E; start=ROLL;
8 DESMID – DIM-SED all reversed; old word for “said”=SED;
10 DUDDIE,WEANS – (added unwise)*; translation – children in ragged clothes from one of Burns’ poems;
13 SPASMATIC – (as impacts)*; “controlled” is angrind;
14 CREMOSIN – CR-SOME reversed-IN; old form of crimson;
18 TOO,BAD – DA-BOOT revesed; “the boot=advantage is on the other foot”;
19 LIBKEN – LI(BK)EN; old word for home;
21 PAGANS – PA(GA)NS;
22 SOREST – SO-REST;
24 ASSOT – A-S(S)OT; S from S(kirt);

10 comments on “Mephisto 2800 by Tim Moorey – From Bosch to Rabbie”

  1. Dear Sir,

    Thank you for your explanations. I enjoy – no, love, really – doing the Times’ crosswords, it’s just that they take me so much longer than you guys!

    Re 29 ac, I think you’ve got a typo in your analysis? Tost written twice. The only tost I could find in Ch 12th edition was as the pp of toss. Grateful for further enlightenment.

    Regards,
    RAdrian Cobb

    1. Correct wordplay is moving S in stot(1) – I suspect Jimbo just typed the wrong funky word ending in T.
  2. Thanks Jim for the elusive parsing. Thought this was rather devilish, but quite enjoyable. Could someone please explain the definition in 1ac (how are Churchill’s servants GIPS?), and in 1d, is ‘reducing’ an insertion indicator- doesn’t really make sense to me.
      1. This is the sort of thing I love about these puzzles at their best. You root around in Chambers and discover that a definition which looked a bit odd is extremely precise.
    1. I think this usage of reducing relates to definition 17 in Chambers sv reduce, namely “to break up, separate”.
  3. This was a fun one – fortunately knew PUFTALOON which opened things up. I’M A DUTCHMAN was a new phrase to me, I know someone I’ll make sure I use it in front of to watch him squirm
  4. Thanks for the blog: I needed help to explain the DUTCHMAN clue. I’d failed to see ‘must’ as an anagrind. This was a bit trickier than some of late. I felt it was none the worse for that, which I’m choosing to regard as a sign of continued progress with these things.

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