Mephisto 2833 – Tim Moorey

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
Welcome to the blog that may get posted at the appropriate time or may be extremely early or late. I’m in Sydney with limited internet access, and while it’s been fun, I realize now how utterly reliant I am on being able to put my little laptop online at any time. So this is being prepared in an odd fashion – I’m writing it up offline ready to copy/paste once I can get the laptop connected.

I was breezing through this one until I was left with two clues – 9 down and 11 across. I have answers to both based on the definitions, but I’m hoping that when I get online and confirm what I suspect is the wordplay.

Away we go…

Across
2 VASOPRESSIN: VAIN, containing SO(as has been stated),PRESS
10 PO-MO: PROMO without (flai)R
11 SPAR,(te)S(co). I hadn’t heard of SPAR the supermarket but airport wifi to the rescue!
13 EMEND: MEN in ED Balls – I wonder if he realizes how often he is a part of wordplay?
14 NACARAT: CAR (Carolus,Charles), A(znavour) in NAT
15 RENAME: RE, then (MEAN)*
17 CAN-OPENER: CANE(switch),R containing OPEN
18 ARAYSE: AE containing RAYS
19 SPERST: SUPPERS missing UP, T
21 P(arty),ELITE
24 ZENITH: (HEINZ)* containing T(arnish)
25 HIDDEN,ITE(m)
29 LEMMAS: M,M(two months) in LEAS(e)
30 TALL OIL: TOIL containing ALL
31 NEPIT: take the first letters away from ONE SPIT
32 END-ON: TENDON without T
33 VIAL: A in VIL
34 AGO,NOT,HETES
 
Down
1 SPERMAPHYTE: (PERHAPS,MET)* around (factor)Y
2 VOMER: RE,MOV(e) all reversed
3 AMEN(conclude),TAL(e)
4 OLD MASTER: first letters of Motor-boat, Abroad in OLDSTER(midshipman)
5 PI,NENE
6 REALOS: anagram of A,SOLE,R
7 SPAHEE: PAH in SEE
8 SARIN: anagram of IN WAR’S without the W
9 IRAN: I(nsurrection),RAN(executed)
12 STAR THISTLE: THIS in STARTLE(rock)
16 A,P,P(r)ETENCE
20 RIEMPIE: (PRIME)*,I.E.
22 I,DO,LON(don)
23 ENGIRT: (NIGER)*,T(ail)
24 ZILLAH: HAL and LIZ all reversed
26 DILDO: O,D,LID all reversed. I understand this word has a more common usage, which could pop up if Viz did a clue-writing contest
27 NAIAS: (ASIAN)*
28 CAN,G

3 comments on “Mephisto 2833 – Tim Moorey”

  1. Dear oh dear, I rummaged through my clipboard to find this Mephisto and discovered I hadn’t done it. It must have been forgotten in the stress of working out how to open a Livejournal account and upload a suitable pic, and the following recovery period. (That’s Publius Terentius Afer by the way, although he does bear a disturbing resemblance to me in my younger days.)
    It has been disappointing to track rednim over the months as he became such a nasty little ‘fucker in response to only slight provocations, so let’s hope he remains on gardening leave for the foreseeable future.
    Now it’s summer and the kookaburras are laughing in the garden, so happy holidays to Mephisto setters, editor and bloggers.
  2. No problems with this one but was also fascinated to read the various definitions of DILDO of which I knew but one. The association of the spiny cactus is particularly intigueing

    As I’ve said before here ED is the most aptly named politician ever who gets rather over exposed in these puzzles

    1. I come to this a bit late – I’ve been busy recently and struggling to keep up with the barred grid puzzles – but without wishing to belittle Ed’s qualifications for the title I have to question the attribution of ‘most aptly named politician’, given the recent (and indeed not so recent) form of Mark Reckless.
      I found the puzzle quite tough. I’m out of practice.

      Edited at 2014-12-24 12:54 am (UTC)

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