Mephisto 2835 – Don Manley

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
We close out 2014 in Mephistos with Don Manley, and a puzzle that had me stumped for a while, particularly in the bottom right corner, where I had to look most of the answers up in Chambers to be completely sure.

My last in was 27 down, and even after writing in the answer from the only possibility with one checking letter I was still kind of stuck on the wordplay, and had to google to find the reference. Not sure how well it is known, but I’ve often been called a philistine around here.

Away we go…

Across
1 GUMPS: SMUG reversed, containing P
5 TERM DAY: (MY,TRADE)*
12 REGAL(fit for a king),(chees)E
13 POMPON: or POMP ON
14 FLUSTRA: FLUSTER without E, then (se)A
16 TUPEK: KEPT reversed containing U(uranium)
17 IRELESS: TIRELESS without the first letter
18 STY,LET
24 CESURA: (SAUCER)*
26 TRACKER: TACKER(fixer) containing (financie)R
28 (r)OARED
29 F,A,DAIS,E
30 STRUM,A
31 JAMPAN: or a JAM PAN
32 MELAMPODE: ME, then LAME(game) containing POD(fruit)
33 DROSTDY: DROS(s) then TIDY without the I
34 EIDER: replace the L with an I in ELDER
 
Down
1 GARFISH: GARISH containing F
2 MAG,UEY: UEY being Australian slang for a U-turn
3 P,LASH
4 SALT EEL: ALT(rest) in SEEL(happiness) for an unusual term for the end of a rope
6 EMPARL: anagram of MEAL,P(roduce),R(esults)
7 MIMULUS: take ST out of STIMULUS
8 DAPPER: double definition
9 ANOESTRUS: (NATURE’S,SO)*
10 YONKS: YON, then take IS out of KISS
15 LITERATOR: take OB from OBLITERATOR
19 LYCEUMS: (MY,CLUES)*
20 BELDAME: BELIE with DAM for the I
21 RAVENER: the double container! VEN in AE in RR
22 BAR,RIO(t)
23 AEFALD: odd clue this – “one” is the definition, and it’s an anagram of DATA FILE less IT
25 UNIPOD: U, NOD containing 1P
26 TOSED: anagram of DOES,T(angle)
27 SAM,PI: SAM coming from “Sam Small, Pick Oop Tha’ Musket”

3 comments on “Mephisto 2835 – Don Manley”

  1. I agree relatively straightforward except for the bottom right where I had no problem with Sam’s musket (Stanley Holloway’s rendition was frequently heard on the radio circa 1950) but couldn’t see AEFALD

    Finally saw the anagram as (DATA FILE minus IT) and then twigged the clue as Data file (can become) this (word meaning) one (plus) IT corrupted. Tricky stuff.

  2. Hadn’t heard of Sam and his musket either. I would classify myself as a philistine, at least relative to the kind of cultural stuff that Times solvers are expected to know, but I don’t think that Stanley Holloway has made it into “the canon” yet.

    For the sake of completeness, it looks like ALALAGMOI at 11A has gone missing.

  3. Just finished this (running behind on Mephistos at the moment), and also found the bottom right the hardest. No idea about Sam and his musket.

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