Mephisto 2853 – Don Manley

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
A little bit behind and shall we say “under the weather” (the weather in this case being a bottle of Beefeaters). Blog likely to appear early Sunday afternoon UK time.

And we’re back. I had a pretty tough time on the right hand side of this grid – the entire left side was filled before much of anything appeared on the right. In the end I’m not sure why as there were some more familiar words on the right, I was just making a meal of the wordplay.

Away we go…

Across
2 ABSTERGENT: A, then BUSTER without U, GENTS
10 ARENARIA: AIR,AN,ERA all reversed
12 L,1,MUL(l),I
13 FENCER: ‘ENCE in FR – a horse that jumps fences
14 THUS: double definition, with the less familiar being a word for frankincense
16 VEENA: (nurs)E in VENA(another word for vein)
18 PIEL’D: tonsured – replace the F in FIELD with P
20 REEDY: GREEDY without G
21 TRIMTAB: TT around RIM then AB
23 MACHREE: M then ACHE surrounding ER reversed
25 MYALL: or MY ALL
27 FESTE(r): a fool from Twelth Night
30 TAHRS: RAH in ST all reversed
32 Y,ELM
33 TOSHER: SHE in TOR – I used to teach a course in composition using crossword clues as examples, and in a little handout I gave the class on cryptic conventions, SHE is listed under “novels setters haven’t read”
34 RAG,GLE(e)
35 QUA,TRAIN
36 BERSAGLIERI: (RISIBLE,GEAR)*
 
Down
1 WALTER MITTY: ALTER,M in WITTY
3 BEMUSE: ME reversed in BUS, E(njoy)
4 SNUSH: SH around SUN reversed
5 ERINITE: NIT in lake ERIE
6 RIFLE: L in RIFE(current)
7 EYNE: hidden in thEY NEed
8 NO,CENT
9 TRENTALS: thirty requiem masses, presumably for when 29 just isn’t enough. THE RENTALS missing HE
11 BRABBLEMENT: RABBLE(mob),MEN in BT(British Telecom)
15 SPY,RE
17 SEASHORE: sounds like SEE,SURE
19 LIMES: double definition
22 RETIRAL: REAL surrounding TIR (Transports Internationalaux Routiers, according to Chambers)
24 CHASER: CHASTER missing T – there’s a rather amusing debate going on in North Carolina as to whether chasers in bars are legal. There is a state law of one alcoholic drink at a time, but the drink is defined as the quantity of alcohol, so technically a beer and a shot is less alcohol than a defined drink
26 ALEGAR: A,(LAGER)* – &lit
28 SPRUG: SPRUNG missing the N
29 AYGRE: hidden reversed in enERGY Always
31 RHUS: RUSH with the H moved up a few places

4 comments on “Mephisto 2853 – Don Manley”

  1. Not too much trouble with this, although the top half went in much more easily than the bottom.
    I will be in Cary tomorrow evening so I will see if I can find an opportunity to test the NC laws on chasers!
    1. I hope you aren’t too disheartened by Cary – it’s a kind of a strip-mall satellite town for people who work in Raleigh or Chapel Hill, and is considered to be an acronym for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.

      I’m about four hours away in the more mountain-y part of the state

      1. Actually I’ll be in Raleigh tonight. My time in Cary will be sent sitting in a meeting so it won’t really matter where I am!

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