Mephisto 2901 – Don Manley

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto
It’s been a long week, so I don’t remember too much about solving this one. I think I started it over coffee and finished it off during breaks in a show I was rehearsing (we opened last night). I don’t have as many question marks and notes next to the puzzle so I can’t have had that difficult a time with it.

I understand Mephisto setters have some latitude in constructing their own grids – this is an interesting one, with 180 degree symmetry and four 3×3 completely checked blocks. These could have been made even wider if needed, four-letter answers could have replaced creating an 11 down and a 24 down (30 across would have to be changed). That could give a practically US-crossword type 3×4 all-checked area.

Away we go…

Across
1 FLACK: sounds like (copping some) FLAK
6 TEMPI: MET reversed (with return journey), then PI
11 PROCAINE: C(about) in an anagram (after release) of OPEN,AIR
12 IMPALE: or I’M PALE
13 ANTAR: hidden in significANT ARea
14 PILLAGER: ILL in PAGER
15 RAYON: CRAYON missing the C
16 BOHEA: AE(aged), HOB(o) all reversed
17 ETHNARCH: anagram of THEN, followed by ARCH(cunning)
21 DIAPENTE: fifth as in interval (think the first jump in “twinkle twinkle little star”) – anagram of IDEA containing PENT
22 ORPIN: OR(yellow), PIN. Chambers has “A degree, stage, pitch” as one of the definitions for PIN, though I have no idea how it would be used as such
24 FEIGN: sounds like FANE(flag)
27 ENTELLUS: (gre)EN(ery), TELL US
29 MAISE: IS(island) in MAE West
30 AVAILE: A VALE containing I
31 A,N,THESIS
32 SEISM: SEX, with ISM(practice) instead of X(wrong)
33 GENRE: GENE(French embarrassment with a circumflex over the first E) containing R(ed)
 
Down
1 F,LIP
2 LAMIA: AMI inside LA
3 APPLY: APPLE with the fifth letter altered
4 CH,ALONE
5 GREGARIANISM: anagram of SIGN,MARRIAGE
6 TOWER CAPTAIN: anagram of I,WANT,ROPE,ACT
7 MAN,TO
8 PITCH IN: I got this from the definition but had to hunt around to find the town that has to have a new first letter. I think it’s HITCHIN
9 INANEST: or IN A NEST
10 BEREAVEN: BEN containing REAVE
15 REFORMAT: anagram of ART,FORM containing E
18 TARPANS: SNAP(unexpected),RAT all reversed
19 HOPLITE: HOP(fly over) then sounds like LIGHT(land). In school (and still now) I liked to think that these soldiers actually hopped to get places, or had pogo sticks
20 KEELAGE: EEK! reversed, then an anagram of GALE
23 IMSHI: I’M, SH, I
25 ILIAN: from Troy – hidden in civILIANs
26 GULAR: one half of TRIANGULAR. I wonder if more Toblerone is sold in duty-free stores than anywhere else
28 SENE: SENEGAL missing GAL

5 comments on “Mephisto 2901 – Don Manley”

  1. I solved this on the new-look Times website, and now I can’t find a way of accessing my completed puzzle. I think I’ll go back to printing it. I remember finding this one pretty straightforward, although that’s been true of a few recently so perhaps I’m going through a run of Mephisto-solving form.
    1. Until more obvious methods are enabled on the site, try finding the Mephisto puzzle page in your browser history. If the history has a search facility, a search for Mephisto and/or the puzzle number should find it.
    2. In Chrome, if you right-click on the puzzle, choose Inspect, and then search the html that comes up for something that looks like http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/st/crossword/20160410/14908/, then that link is a static link that you can subsequently go back to even when the new-look Mephisto link is pointing to a more recent puzzle. There’s no doubt a similar process you can use in other browsers. You could try guessing at the URL for last week’s by inserting 20160403 instead of 20160410 and then decrementing the 14908, but (from experience) that can take enough time that you’ll wish you hadn’t bothered.

      Edited at 2016-04-10 05:47 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks, but I get a headache just reading that! I normally print Mephisto and Azed and solve them when I’m travelling (I spend a lot of time in aeroplanes) so the problem probably won’t arise again.
  2. Agree with George and Keriothe – an easy puzzle. Hadn’t noticed the grid construction – interesting point

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