This was quite an easy one, for a Mephisto, and I solved it in about 50 minutes without having to consult any reference material. Unfortunately, a slight ambiguity in a clue lead to a wrong answer, as I confidently substituted ‘aya’ for ‘nursemaid’ in the cryptic, without thinking that ‘aia’ is also possible. Such are the dangers of solving Mephisto without book, so I ended up with a single incorrect letter.
Both the vocabulary and the range of allusions should be well within most solver’s ken, and I don’t expect to see any mistakes from those who check their work as they go. Of course, I never know whether when something I consider obvious will be obscure to other solvers, but if you have a good general education you shouldn’t have too much difficulty.
| Across | |
| 1 | Predict a feeling of annoyance, getting hit hard (7) |
| BETHUMP – BET + HUMP, the hump you have to get over. The be- intensifier was common in early modern English. | |
| 6 | A distinctive flavour ultimately lacking in jelly (5) |
| ASPIC – A SPIC[e]. | |
| 10 | The French into making money, offering modern form of education (9) |
| E-LEARNING – E(LE)EARNING. | |
| 11 | Old physician with a particular mineral (6) |
| GALENA – GALEN + A. As a boy, I had a set of samples of various minerals, and 60 years later I still remember the distinct feel of galena. | |
| 13 | Trip in which sailor is given drum (6) |
| TABOUR – T(AB)OUR, the drum that goes with the pipes. | |
| 15 | Dish of beef king cast aside (4) |
| FLAN – FLAN[k]. This word can also mean a lie in 18th-century slang, watch out for that. | |
| 16 | Something dim about agent getting nothing right in inaccurate account (9) |
| MISREPORT – MIS(REP + 0 + R)T. | |
| 17 | Artist wants food and drink — a bit of a nerve is that? (6) |
| RAMEAL – R.A. + MEAL A ‘rameal’ nerve is one that branches off, a meaning not given in most dictionaries. | |
| 19 | Greek characters participating in street assembly (4) |
| ETAS – hidden in [stre]ET AS[sembly]. | |
| 20 | Royal’s no leader — equivalent to a famous writer (4) |
| EGAL – [r]EGAL The literal is a bit obscure – perhaps someone’s quirk of speech? | |
| 22 | Handle cattle in shed, half having escaped (6) |
| SNEATH – S(NEAT)H[ed]. More often spelt ‘snath’, the handle of a scythe. | |
| 24 | Strange car boot sale disposing of old books — and fish! (9) |
| ALBACORES – Anagram of CAR BO[ot] SALE, where the Old Testament is given the boot, so to speak. | |
| 26 | Operating system that’s “superior” leading to nothing (4) |
| UNIX – U + NIX, a write-in for all you sysadmins out there – no need to grep for it! | |
| 29 | In rack, loose seed (6) |
| NICKAR – anagram of IN RACK. Seeds of the warri tree, to be precise. The word also refers to a water-spirit, familiar to those who read Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon before they took up Unix. | |
| 30 | First sign of organ 11 reconstructed (6) |
| ANLAGE – anagram of GALENA, the embryonic form of an important bit of the body. | |
| 31 | Nursemaid hides male offspring in trees (9) |
| ADANSONIA – A(DAN,SON)IA, my one failure. More commonly called baobabs. | |
| 32 | Place to stay, no small house with huge aim (5) |
| TELOS – [ho]TEL + OS, the stock Attic Greek word for end or goal. | |
| 33 | Big car has little girl with huge appetite (7) |
| LIMOSIS – LIMO + SIS. An obsolete word that is obvious from the cryptic. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Muslim female started getting short with male (5) |
| BEGUM – BEGU[n] + M. Apparently equivalent to ‘madam’ or ‘lady’ in English. | |
| 2 | Novel metallic seat having a charming quality (12) |
| TELESMATICAL – anagram of METALLIC SEAT. Related to talisman, so not charismatical on the telly…although you might have gotten to the answer that way. | |
| 3 | Pigment of drug-injected meat (4) |
| HAEM – HA(E)M. The pigment that makes blood red. | |
| 4 | Weight used by Greeks — or Minoans, oddly (4) |
| MNAS – M[i]N[o]A[n]S. A Semitic word adapted by the Greeks, it was both a weight and a unit of 100 drachmas. | |
| 5 | Hapless and holy, the husband being ditched needing shelter (7) |
| PITEOUS – |
|
| 6 | Stream from a hilltop descending on farm (9) |
| ANABRANCH – A + NAB + RANCH. Nab is a northern and Scottish word. An anabrach is a stream that leaves a river and rejoins it later on. | |
| 7 | Workers to be organised in pairs later on (12) |
| PROLETARIANS – anagram of PAIRS LATER ON. | |
| 8 | Lizards wandering in Nicaragua avoiding vehicle (6) |
| IGUANA – Anagram of NI[car]AGUA. | |
| 9 | In one corner of England having little growth is hard (7) |
| CORNISH – CORN IS H. | |
| 12 | Song of heretical nationalist being rejected (4) |
| ARIA – ARIA[n]. | |
| 14 | Acts as tutor to member of aristocracy wearing hippy accessories? (9) |
| BEARLEADS – B(EARL)EADS. | |
| 17 | Sort of number — manage it to secure record (7) |
| REPUNIT – R(EP)UN IT. A base-10 number that consists only of 1, as 111 or 1111. | |
| 18 | Candid written accusation artist penned (7) |
| LIBERAL – LIBE(R.A.)L, with an older meaning of candid. | |
| 21 | Concrete holiday home occupied by a Parisian (6) |
| GUNITE – G(UN)ITE. | |
| 23 | Sheep’s offspring brought up on grass primarily (4) |
| TEGG – GET upside-down + G[rass], more often spelt ‘teg’, common in puzzles but uncommon elsewhere. | |
| 25 | Garden clippers not right for trees (5) |
| SHEAS – SHEA[r]S, the vitellaria tree. | |
| 27 | Fellow on island offers facility for prayer (4) |
| MANI – MAN + I, a prayer wheel. | |
| 28 | Reserved and haughty female being put off potato (4) |
| ALOO – ALOO[f]. | |
To start with I had ADAMSONIA, but fortunately the M is checked and to make sense of 27dn I eventually spotted and corrected the error.
Now I’ve done it, maybe I won’t bother to be quite so rigorous in future .. it is handy sometimes to think of a word and quickly check to see that it is real. However I intend to carry on doing nothing more, so no hunting through looking for any word that fits, or anything like that
At 20A EGAL is a Waggle-dagger word
At 17D a REPUNIT is a number that is any single number repeated several times, not just the number 1. So, in the UK the most well known REPUNIT is probably 999
For BEARLEADS, which I did look up to check, I was sure that the hippy accessories were beards, but the LEA is in no way aristocratic, so that needed a rethink.
I had entered GUNITE on the same day in Words With Friends, so it was good to find out what it was beyond a useful collection of letters.
Thanks V foe an entertaining review.
However long it took me I had the dreaded pink square: a careless BEGAM. This is why I generally look up the answers.
JJ