Greetings all – I’m posting this from Arlington, Virginia just outside of Washington DC where I am working for the next couple of days. If you get the chance to visit my adopted nations capital, I recommend it, there are a lot of musuems (and almost all of the Smithsonian ones are free) and monuments, a weirdly efficient public transport system and because most people here work for some branch of the gubernment they compensate by getting trashed every weekend.
Now to the puzzle. Some odd words, and some yummy food (for a while it seemed all the dishes in Mephisto sounded revolting, the worst offender being CRAPPIT-HEAD) and as usual with Paul McKenna a pun in the top row for WASTE-GROUND
Definitions (underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I am going to focus on wordplay.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Middle week is covered by administrative trainee (5) |
| WAIST – W(week) then IS inside AT(administrative trainee) | |
| 5 | Credit admitted is knocked on the head (7) |
| CROWNED – CR(credit), OWNED(admitted) | |
| 10 | Most jeer blooming amateur that swims the southern seas (10) |
| BARRACOUTA – BARRACK(jeer) missing the last letter, then OUT(blooming), A(amateur) | |
| 11 | Irish bottled liquor, pretty much good though lacking power (8) |
| STOCIOUS – most of STOCK(liquor from boiled bones), then PIOUS(good) missing P(power) | |
| 13 | From the east a cook finally supplies ____? (5) |
| TIKKA – reversal of A, the last letter of cooK, KIT(supplies) | |
| 14 | Prudent hack admitted fighting tax (7) |
| SCUTAGE – SAGE(prudent) containing CUT(hack) | |
| 16 | Badger without the benefit of quiet compound (5) |
| ESTER – PESTER(badger) missing P(quiet) | |
| 17 | Utter failure to follow suit whipping off top (7) |
| ENOUNCE – RENOUNCE(failure to follow suit) missing the first letter | |
| 19 | Graphic pictures I knock out not specified (5) |
| IKONS – I, KO(knock out), NS(not specified) | |
| 22 | Pull up Asian tethering emptied yacht (5, two words) |
|
LAY TO – LAO(Asian) containing Y |
|
| 23 | Any of three leading Greeks is right to back restitution of chair (7) |
| TRIARCH – RT(right) reversed then an anagram of CHAIR. Greeks is in there because of the derivation of the word | |
| 24 | A coalition of Britain and America forms source of poison (5) |
| ABRUS – A, BR(Britiain), US(part of North America) | |
| 28 | Prized metal previously left in shallow pan (7) |
| PLATINA – L(left) inside PATINA(shallow pan) | |
| 29 | French char looking at special ham? (5) |
| THESP – THE(tea, char, in French), then SP(special) | |
| 30 | Roller signalled by my unrivalled place in the market (8) |
| CORNICHE – COR(my), NICHE(unrivalled place in the market) The CORNICHE Is a brain of Rolls-Royce | |
| 31 | Clean slips being disturbed? Preferably not in this game (10) |
| SPELLICANS – anagram of CLEAN,SLIPS | |
| 32 | Result in islanders dying off in scores (7) |
| MORENDO – END(result) in MORO(Philippine islanders) | |
| 33 | Mushy peas reportedly in part of decision (5) |
| SAPPY – P and P (peas) inside SAY(part of decision) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Refinement of Walter Scott’s prime ne’er-do-well (7) |
| WASTREL – anagram of WALTER and the first letter of Scott | |
| 2 | In London suburb I bale out giving legal ground (10) |
| ACTIONABLE – ACTON(London suburb) containing I, then an anagram of BALE | |
| 3 | Train of silk except that it could’ve been blown (7) |
| SACKBUT – SACK(tran of silk), BUT(except that) | |
| 4 | Ignoring one very frivolous comedy actor who may sing (5) |
| TRIAL – remove I(one) and V(very) from TRIVIAL(frivolous) | |
| 5 | Hybrid canine found by explorer (5) |
| CROSS – C(canine), then John ROSS(arctic explorer) | |
| 6 | King Lear roughly captures capital — Rob Roy’s rougher (7) |
| RAUCLER – R(king), and an anagram of LEAR containing UC(upper-case, capital) | |
| 7 | Veggies with leftovers (5) |
| WORTS – W(with), ORTS(leftovers) | |
| 8 | Rev with needless ferocity turned on American blue trumpery (8) |
| NUGATORY – GUN(rev with needless ferocity) reversed, then A(American), TORY(blue) | |
| 9 | Steady fruit of desert runs? (5) |
| DATER – DATE(fruit of desert), R(runs) | |
| 12 | ____ means second spring in which stewards act for all (10, two words) |
| AGENCYSHOP – AGENCY(means), S(second), HOP(spring) | |
| 15 | Are wheels spinning under upset chuckle-head? A menace (8, two words) |
| BOY RACER – I’m struggling a little with wordplay. I think it is RE(are?), CAR(wheels) reversed under a reversal of YOB(chuckle-head) but I’m open to better suggestions | |
| 18 | Combed disturbing notice on dead (7) |
| CTENOID – anagram of NOTICE, then D(dead) | |
| 20 | Egyptian soul mate is a spiritual dancer (7) |
| KACHINA – KA(Egyptian soul), CHINA(mate) | |
| 21 | Well-rounded mock line used in gibe (7) |
| SHAPELY – APE(mock), L(line) inside SHY(gibe) | |
| 24 | Little over half of diversion is parrotry (5) |
| APISM – most of ESCAPISM | |
| 25 | Universal chimney pot would’ve been behovely (5) |
| UTILE – U(universal), TILE(chimney pot) | |
| 26 | I collar horse dealers west of Newbury — with bow (5) |
| NARCO – leftmost letter of Newbury, then ARCO(with bow) – horse referring to heroin here | |
| 27 | Prepayment lifted on small vessels which are lit up (5) |
| ETNAS – reversal of ANTE(prepayment), then S(small) | |
Edited at 2019-11-03 03:11 pm (UTC)
Jeremy
I’m finding Mephistos curiously easy at the moment (I suspect we’ve just had a run of quite easy puzzles), but there are usually one or two clues that I find especially difficult or even impossible. That was the case with this one and I had to cheat to finish… but now I can’t remember which clues.