Mephisto 2889 – Don Manley

Last Sunday here was kind of cold and miserable, so I recall racing through both the Mephisto and Sunday Times offering in pretty quick succession.

A lot of times with Don Manley crosswords I’ve relied on wordplay as the way in, but this time around there was a fair bit of what is called “biffing” during the week with a return to the clues for wordplay sorting out for this blog. I hope I have it all sorted out.

Away we go

Across
1 BRIDESMAN: BAN containing RIDES,M
11 VELETA: VELA is a southern constellation, so I think ET is the little monster from the early 80’s movie
12 DACHA: AH(my) and CAD(Computer-aided design) all reversed
13 HALCYON: another one from definition – the old person is a CHAL so put the C at the end, YON(that)
14 HOAR: HOARD missing D
16 MOUTERER: MOUTHER(one speaking) and ER(hesitation) missing H
17 AMAH: MA in A,H
18 IMPASTO: I’M PAST O
20 PESANTE: musically heavy, PEASANT missing A(afternoon), E
25 RASORES: SORE(Chambers has “in distress” for SORE as an adverb, but I can’t think of how it could be used as such) in RAS(headland)
26 TRUDGE,N
27 RYPE: P in RYE
29 OUISTITI: a marmoset – IS after U in O,TITI(American shrub)
32 RIND: GRIND without the G
33 LEDGIER: LEDGER containing I, and a word I need to use someday “your bookshelf is impressive, Mr Bond, but I think you’ll find mine far ledgier”
34 ANCLE: hidden in womAN CLEaned
35 SIENNA: ANNE,IS all reversed
36 TREPANNER: REP in TANNER(sixpence)
 
Down
2 REARM: REAM,M(meridiem, noon)
3 ILLY: take the first letter away from SILLY
4 DECKHAND: anagram of HAND-PICKED less PI
5 ETYMONS: anagram of YET, then MONS(site of the first battle the British were involved with in WWI)
6 MANUMEA: UNMAN reversed then E,A(frica)
7 A,DIT
8 SCORSER: anagram of CROSSER
9 CHAETA: CHAP without the P(shaved) containing TEA reversed
10 CARROUSEL: Although this is given in Chambers as the North American spelling of the word, I’ve not seen it spelled that way in 20 years in the US and Canada. Anyhoo, the country worker is a CARL, holding ROUSE(bumper)
15 HAPHTORAH: anagram of TH(e),PHAROAH
19 A,B,ORIGEN: read all about ORIGEN in the entry for ORIGENIST in Chambers
21 SQUINCH: QUIN in SCH
22 TREILLE: ILL inside TREE
23 ASPIDIA: ASPIRED(towered up) missing RE(about to fall), then 1,A. Another from definition that took a while to figure out the wordplay
24 PRUINE: UNRIPE*
28 PHENE: HEN in PE
30 TEER: (desser)T,EER
31 WINN: WINNIE (the pooh) losing IE

5 comments on “Mephisto 2889 – Don Manley”


  1. “Sore” perhaps as in
    “The angel of the Lord came upon them … and they [the shepherds] were sore afraid” Luke 2 v 9 King James Version?
    M.
  2. Like George I raced through this without any of the usual doodlings on the paper

    I thought 18A was an anagram of (I am spot)and that the inclusion of “hand” in both anagrist and answer at 4D was a bit weak

    Also rather liked LEDGIER – just can’t imagine anybody ever using it

    1. +2 – my test-solving, and more importantly, Don’s notes. [You need to read “to be” in the clue as a def/wordplay link, “manumit” being “to set (someone else) free” rather than “to be set free”.]

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