Struggled a little with this one, though I think a lot of it was confidently putting in NEARNESS at 18 down. My printout still has a few question marks on it, hopefully those will be figured out as I write this up.
I hope he doesn’t mind me telling the blogiverse, but Paul McKenna assured me recently that he has a backlog of puns to go across the top row of Mephisto puzzles, and this time around we are treated to a pun on ADOLESCENCE. Speaking of which, commiserations to my friends Mark and Daniel who are hosting a teenage exchange student for a semester.
Away we go…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ADDLE: tricky one to start with – ADDLE can describe an egg that has gone bad, and WADDLE is a fraud of the footsies – remove a W from it to get the answer |
| 5 | ESSENCE: anagram of E,SCENE’S |
| 10 | PATIO DOORS: anagram of PAIRS,TOO containing DO(ditto, the same) |
| 11 | CO,PLAN,AR: nothing difficult about the clue, but the definition is kind of literal for a Mephisto, I thought |
| 13 | AP,PAL |
| 14 | VIEWY: VIE(compete),W,Y(youth hostel) |
| 17 | DUNLIN: sounds like DONE before LIN(pool) |
| 18 | NEXTNESS: NESS(point) next to N, EXT |
| 19 | BETH: double definition based on there being two Queen Elizabeths |
| 21 | TRAD: D following ART reversed |
| 22 | PROSECCO: PROS(bona robas being prostitutes), ECCO(there in Italian) |
| 24 | FEMORA: anagram of MARE,OF |
| 27 | ANILE: A(about), NILE(river known for crocodiles) |
| 29 | RADGE: D in the middle of RAGE(row) |
| 30 | PURITIES: PURI(Indian fried cake), TIES(obliges) |
| 31 | EVEN-STEVEN: ST,EVEN(fair) after EVEN(evening, end of day) |
| 32 | TARTLET: TART(prostiture, hostess),LET(canceled served in tennis) |
| 33 | ENARM: ANE reversed, then RM |
| Down | |
| 1 | AS,C,AUNT |
| 2 | DROP SERENE: anagram of NEEDS PROPER minus a P |
| 3 | LA-LAS: SALAL reversed- comp referring to an accompanist |
| 4 | ETALON: NO, LATE all reversed |
| 5 | EINE: hidden in valuE IN Exchaning |
| 6 | SO-AND-SOS: SAND(grit), containing O then SOS |
| 7 | EOSIN: anagram of ONE,IS |
| 8 |
NON-ELECT: N(name),ONE(only), then LECT |
| 9 | EST,Y,N: Ofsted is an English education board, ESTYN is a Welsh one |
| 12 | SWITCH-GEAR: anagram of CHARGES containing WIT |
| 15 | EXAMINER: AXE(fire) reversed, then MINER(digger) |
| 16 | PERACUTE: PERAI(piranha, river fish) with the I replaced with CUTE |
| 20 | HOLESOM: HOLES(puts/pots, think pool or golf),OM(intonation) |
| 23 | SCR,I’VE |
| 24 | FACE,’T |
| 25 | OLENT: SOLENT missing S |
| 26 | OATEN: ATE(tucked in) inside ON(in addition to) |
| 28 | ARET: ARE(a) then T |
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