Mephisto 2843 – Paul McKenna

Once upon a time I complained that the Mephisto introduced me to utterly-disgusting sounding foods (often with similarly unappealing names) on a weekly basis. This week we are introduced to cattle diarrhoea. Wheeee! At least in the clue it is given a gentler definition.

There seemed to be a greater use of obscure definitions than usual, maybe because most of the words in the grid would be familiar, particularly to regular solvers of barred-grid puzzles. I managed most of this without a dictionary (though with lots of question marks, one of which was proven to be incorrect after a little checking), and polished it off in a second quick sitting.

Away we go…

Across
1	MAYO: MAYOR without R(itual)
4	THE WEDGE: THEW(manner),EDGE – the lowest student on the Tripos List at Cambridge. Uncomfortable definition, brings back memories of being the lowest ranked student in first class honors at Melbourne University in 1991. Was it better to be the lowest first class or the highest second class?
11	SPARRE: R in SPARE
12	SCALENI: SCALE(tartar, particularly dental), then IN(concerned with) reversed
13	RAIL: middles of spRAts and sILd
14	HORAHS: HORA(l) then SH reversed
15	(b)EAGLE: EAGLE coins in the US are mostly ceremonial and sold in late-night infomercials
16	VULGAR TONGUE: V then an anagram of (GAG,ON,CULTURE) minus C
18	ARSENAL: LANES,R(take, recipe),A all reversed
23	REF,LECT
24	‘S,A,LOON,KEEPER
26	BRIE,F(amously)
27	GRAYLE: ARGYLE with the first three letters mixed
29	UN,C,(f)I(shes)
30	TUITION: TU,I then (INTO)*
31	PINOTS: (STOP,IN)*
32	DING-DONG: haven’t seen this mean “nag” before. DIG(swot) and DOG both containing N
33	PE(t),CH
Down
1	MASH(court as in flirt with),VAT,S
2	(pa)Y,EAR
3	OF(aged),LAG
4	THE HAND OF GOD: this is referencing Maradona’s claim that one of his goals in the 1986 soccerball world cup was the “hand of God” when really he slapped it in the goal
5	EPISTLE: EP, then T in ISLE
6	WAVE OFFERING: (FEW,FORGIVE,AN)*
7	ERRANT: RE reversed, RANT
8	DRAGGLE: RAGG for A n DALE
9	E,ALE
10	S,COURS(e): horse diarrhoea
17	ENTRE(e),NC(no charge),H
19	SALICIN: ALIC(e) in SIN
20	ARNOTTO: (TOON,ART)*
21	OC,E,LOT
22	MOEING: OE in MING
25	EAT UP: or EA TUP
26	B,UND
28	YITE: Y then (TIE)*