Greetings all – sorry about the lateness of this one, but I lost access to the crossword club and since I was out of town I had not printed the Mephisto in advance last week. I have it now, so should be able to get something up by mid-afternoon Sunday UK time.
And now it is solved. I found the right hand side more tricky than the left hand side, and the 90-degree grid with only the four 10-letter entries reaching into multiple sectors makes it more like solving four mini-puzzles.
It took me a few reads to see the pun in the top row for COURT-MARTIAL
Away we go…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CORED: R in COED |
| 5 |
MARSHAL: MARS(iron in alchemy), then AL |
| 11 | ADOLESCENT: anagram of DEACON,LETS |
| 13 | STRIDES: RID inside SETS reversed – I smiled at this one, although in Chambers it is listed as Aussie slang for trousers, it usually means underwear, or having your trousers pulled down as a prank |
| 14 | LEAGUED: AGUE(shivering fit) in LED |
| 15 | E-CIGS: ICE(meth) reversed and then GS. Who would have thought smoking could be replaced by something even more obnoxious? Almost everyone was vaping at the party I was at last night and the air smelled sickly sweet |
| 16 | OATERS: FL(flourit, flourished) removed from FLOATERS(errors) |
| 17 | AKITA: TIKA(tradition Indian spot on the head) reversed then A |
| 18 |
FRETTED: T |
| 24 | SOFT ROE: remove S from SOFT ROSE |
| 25 | C,HATS |
| 26 | OSCULA: AlSO reversed surrounding CU |
| 29 |
RAKES: double definition for a skinny person (bag o bones) and a gadabout (gay dog) |
| 30 | APEHOOD: A, then an anagram of HOPE, O(of), D(Democrat) |
| 31 | UNCLIPT: UNCL(e) then P inside IT. Is clipping railway tickets still a thing in England? The only place in the US that I know of that hasn’t gone entirely to a card system is Philadelphia |
| 32 | WAGE FREEZE: W, AGE(mellow), FR and then sounds like EASE(wealth) |
| 33 | LEARNED: Edward LEAR then DEN reversed |
| 34 | ARSON: AR(Arabic), SON(inhabitant) |
| Down | |
| 1 | CALL OFF: CAFF with L,L(lines), O(on) inside |
| 2 | ROTATED: TATE gallery with ROD(pistol) outside |
| 3 | ELOGE: EGOLESS reversed with the two S’s removed |
| 4 | DEMUR: anagram of RUDE containing M |
| 6 | ACT DIDO: ACT(bit of play), DID O(provided nothing) |
| 7 | REREAD: I have this as RE(on), READ(stomach=digest=read) |
| 8 | SNICKET: NICK(cut) inside SET. Slowed myself down by abing SNIPPET pencilled in here for a while thinking PET stood for some pricing tool |
| 9 | A PEG TOO LOW: my favorite clue in this puzzle by far – APE(mimic), G(grand) then a reversal of W/O LOOT(wonga) |
| 10 |
LYSSA: ASS and |
| 12 |
GEAR-CHANGE: EG reversed and then ARCHANGE |
| 19 | TUTELAR: anagram of A,TURTLE |
| 20 | ESCAPEE: ES(El Salvador) then an anagram of PEACE |
| 21 | CRUORES: CRU(wine vintage), ORES(seaweed tangles) |
| 22 | DEAD MEN: DE(.de is the domain name for Germany), then AD MEN(puffers) |
| 23 | AS,SIGN |
| 25 | CRUEL: CRUE(company), L |
| 27 | SERRA: reverse ARREST(collar) missing the last letter |
| 28 | CH,EER |
Well, off to try another Mephisto….