Mephisto 2830 by Tim Moorey

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Mephisto
A middle of the road puzzle with no queries – very straightforward solve

Across
1 TRIDUAN – (N-AUDI-RT) all reversed; of three days duration;
7 SALP – PLAS(h) reversed; marine creature;
10 RENAL – hidden (child)REN-AL(legedly);
11 SHOPHAR – SHOP-HAR(p); old type of horn;
12 HOSTLESSE – HESSE surrounds (lots)*; German State=HESSE (capital Wiesbaden);
13 PSIS – I-SIS becomes P-SIS;
16 SIMURG – GIS reversed surround RUM; fabled bird;
17 ASARUM – A-SARUM; the old city of SARUM was north of Salisbury;
18 LIART – TRAIL reversed; quiz=TRAIL; dapple-grey in Dundee;
19 PERI – PERI(l);
21 PASH – two meanings; 1=Waggledagger for crush; 2=teenage passion;
22 CITAL – (re)CITAL; concerning=RE; cast=throw out;
23 EATCHE – EAT-CHE; old cutting tool;
25 STRAPS – STRAP-S(erenade); STRAP=old slang for barber;
27 BLOB – B-LOB; book=B; a score of zero in cricket (and in Stableford golf);
29 STILLROOM – (there’s) STILL ROOM = we have spare capacity;
30 PICKEER – PICK-sounds like EAR;
31 NOSER – NOS-ER;
32 YEVE – Y-EVE;
33 UNSHENT – (huntsmen – m=marks)*; old word for uninjured;
 
Down
1 TRIP – TRIP(e);
2 RETSINA – celeb=A-LISTER then change L to N and reverse;
3 INTIMISTE – INTI-MIST-E; INTI=old Peruvian coin (ready=money); French impressionist;
4 ULOTRICHALES – U(LOT-RICH-ALE)S; algae;
5 ASSEGAIED – (assad siege – s=section)*;
6 MOLESTATIONS – MOLE-STATIONS;
7 SPEK – KEPS reversed; KEPS=catches in Kendal; whale blubber;
8 LASSU – LASS-(Ramea)U; slow movement;
9 PREEMIES – P(MEER reversed)IES; premature babies;
14 HARTSHORN – HART-SHORN;
15 TREHALOSE – TRE(HALOS)E; maple for TREE=DBE; natural ugar found in honey;
16 SUPER-SPY – (pussy)* surrounds PER=a; reference James Bond, Ian Fleming’s MI6 employee;
20 REPOMEN – REP-OMEN;
24 ARTIE – (p)ARTIE(s); Shaw perhaps;
26 YLKE – (we)EKLY reversed; old word for ilk;
28 BORT – BOR(sch)T;

13 comments on “Mephisto 2830 by Tim Moorey”

  1. This made for an enjoyable Sunday evening although I spent too long trying to justify ‘premmies’ at 9. The Macquarie Dictionary gives ‘premmie’, the word with which I am familiar, and which seems a better abbreviation of ‘premature’, but in the Shorter Oxford it’s ‘preemie’. Divided by a common language.
    rednim
    1. Or united by a common reference dictionary, if you use it, as Mephisto setters do nearly all the time. Chambers has three spellings including the expected answer, but not “premmies”. Therefore you must be looking for a different spelling. With all the practice offered by Spenser and others, imagining alternative spellings seems routine for Mephisto solvers. Another way to find them is often to let your eye roam on the Chambers page – both “premie” and “premy” are on the one where you’d look for “premmie”, and point you to the answer.

      Alternatively, having seen the PIES, you decide that words for “only” starting with a double M are in short supply, and “mere” might have a variant too.

      1. Hello Peter – “let your eye roam on the Chambers page”. How right you are. Part of the art of solving Mephisto and similar offerings is proper use of C. I do miss some of the old quirkiness and lists of obscure names and all the rest of it.

        Mind you, we could be showing our age here. Today they probably use an electronic device and so never get to see the printed page!

        1. I use the Chambers app on my iPhone or iPad, so my eye never gets to roam the page. On the other hand I usually solve these things when I’m travelling, and the big red book is a bit heavy for hand luggage, so without the app I wouldn’t get to solve them at all.
          I found this one very difficult, but that may be because I am a bit out of practice at the moment. I started it last week but then lost my copy and had to start again and I’ve only just finished it.
            1. I’m sorry but I think that’s nonsense. It seems to me that Peter was just trying to be helpful, as always.
              1. No need to be sorry. Peter was ‘trying to be helpful’ where no help was required, as any fair reading of my initial post will show. I was making an innocuous point about a difference between Australian and British English but it seems to me that Peter let his chagrin at some of my other Mephisto posts, where I have had a little fun at his expense, colour his response. He pretended that I would not have been able to arrive at ‘preemies’ without his help and proceeded to give a nursery lesson on the use of a dictionary. Rather than address my point, Peter fashioned his response to make him look good and me look bad, in my view an ego trip on his part.
                I read your posts with interest and usually consider them to be fair and reasonable. I therefore regret that you see this matter in a different light.
                regards,
                rednim
                1. If there was a nursery lesson, it was on the value of having a copy of Chambers printed in the last decade or so. Yes, your other posts may have coloured my response, mainly because I don’t see your comments as “a little fun”. Examples: “Both setter and editor really should skedaddle from the scene” (Mephisto 2784), and last week’s jibe about Chambers Crossword Manual.
      2. I’ve been sucking eggs for a long time now, thanks anyway. My, admittedly old, Chambers gives no preemie, premmie, premie or premy. Perhaps you should advise me to buy a new one.
        rednim
        1. As Chambers has its spellings in my 1988 edition, you’ve presumably got one more than 30 years old. The advice is implicit in the “primary reference” mentioned in the details about the puzzle every week, which you must have seen (or ignored) many times.

          Edited at 2014-11-30 07:56 pm (UTC)

  2. For some reason I had all sorts of trouble coming up with HOSTLESSE… aah, that’s right because I had SPUE in 7 for a while and had to go back and rethink that.

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