Mephisto 3113 – Tim Moorey

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto

Well aren’t I silly – I had an incorrect entry – did not spot BRAWL. There goes my chance for a prize I am ineligible for and that is not in stock!

Greetings all – hope you are staying safe and sane!

Since I do the odd-numbered Mephistos, I rarely get a celebratory puzzle, so welcome to this palindromic offering! Good puzzle for wordplay as there were a lot of unfamilar terms in the grid.  Speaking of the grid, I like that it has 90-degree symmetry, but the bars do kind of cut it up into four mini-puzzles that meet in the middle.

In Mephisto puzzles definitions (underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers so I will focus on the wordplay here.

Away we go…

Across
4 Dee for example, New Age choir leader in Perth? (9)
LETTER-GAE – dee is a LETTER, then an anagram of AGE. The link between LETTER-GAE and choir leader is PRECENTOR, both new terms to me
10 During brief kiss, one’s showing male and female characteristics (8)
INTERSEX –  IN(during), TERSE(brief), X(kiss)
11 Lily has a change of direction in compound (4)
ALUM – the lily is an ARUM, change R for L
12 Verse and German dance boring French company (6)
STANZA – TANZ(German for “dance” as a noun) inside SA (Societe Anonyme, French company)
13 Capital invested originally in Hardy hit (6)
RIYADH – first letter of Invested inside an anagram of HARDY – capital of Saudi Arabia. A cousin of mine was working there for a while and invited me to visit, but I decided against it.
14 Wandering tribe, debauched by the sound of it (5)
HORDE – sounds like WHORED(debauched)
15 Rob mostly after a shot making no angle (6)
AGONIC – NICK(rob) missing the last letter after A, GO(shot)
17 Innocent Ealing comedy’s number one for broadcasting (7)
ANGELIC – anagram of EALING and the first letter of Comedy
20 Virtuous son going out more! (7)
SINLESS – S(son) and going out more would mean IN LESS
23 Refuse to co-operate with sporting Knight (7)
BOYCOTT – double definition, the second referring to the former England Test opener Geoffrey BOYCOTT who was knighted last year
27 Priest featured in writing by a girl (7)
MELISSA – ELI(priest) inside MSS (manuscripts, writing), then A
28 Paid out before vehicle duty sent round (6)
VEERED – ERE(before) inside VED(Vehicle Excise Duty)
29 Head certainly returned old gold coin (5)
KOBAN – NAB(head) and OK(certainly) both reversed
31 Leave bedbug and scratch! (6)
SCRAMB – SCRAM(leave), B(bedbug)
32 Shrewd piecework in HQ, billions spent (6)
ASTUTE – TUT(piecework) inside BASE(HQ) missing B(billions)
33 Broadcast admitting tare in Scottish crop (4)
STOW – SOW(broadcast) containing T(tare)
34 Call in popular Italian and stop for a bit (8)
INTERMIT – TERM(call) inside IN(popular), IT(Italian)
35 Note Liberal really upset — it’s trifling stuff (9)
FALLALERY – FA(musical note), L(liberal) and an anagram of REALLY
Down
1 Television screening one old ruler born on a fasting day (9)
TISHAH B’AV – TV(television) containing I(one), SHAH(old ruler), B(born), A.
2 Merchant advanced weird notion (7)
ANTONIO – A(advanced) then an anagram of NOTION. Reference to The Merchant of Venice
3 Pole set on getting grass in Glasgow (4)
STAR – S(pole), TAR(set on)
4 Bank on upset after mixture with no little Bass (6)
LENDER – RE(on) reversed after BLEND(mixture) missing B(bass)
5 Old Russian in dire straits (7)
TSARIST – anagram of STRAITS
6 Pressing General during leave (7)
EXIGENT – GEN(General) inside EXIT(leave)
7 No lead in pencil? That’s material! (5)
RAYON – CRAYON(pencil) missing the first letter
8 Looks to hedge pound leading to complaint (8)
GLANDERS – GANDERS(looks) containing L(pound)
9 Car’s first for outstanding sound (5)
AUDIO – AUDI(car), then the first letter in Outstanding
16 Walton’s advice perhaps succeeded for some of the percussion (9)
CASTANETS – This one I got from the definition – the reference is to Isaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler, who might advise you to CAST A NET, then S(succeeded)
18 Sweetener from corrupt clergy leads to local order (8)
GLYCEROL – anagram of CLERGY, then first letters of Local Order
19 Take tea crossing motorway in unconventional region (7)
BOHEMIA – BOHEA tea surrounding the M1
21 Parrot learned after scratching head (7)
ITERATE – LITERATE(learned) missing the top letter
22 S African dish provided by very French composer (7)
SOSATIE – SO(very), then Erik SATIE(French composer). Many of the foods in Mephisto clues sound revolting, but this one does sound tasty. Spiced lamb with apricot on a stick!
24 School dormitory, Dom expelled for wild behaviour (6)
RIOTRY – anagram of DORMITORY minus DOM
25 Heard clergyman in processed food outlets (5)
RECTA – sounds like RECTOR(clergyman)
26 Hard in centre of clubland to get a dance for oldies (5)
CRAWL – RAW(hard) inside CL(clubland). I don’t see this definition in Chambers, but it is pretty straightforwar Nope – it’s BRAWL – RAW inside the central letters of cluBLand. Whoopsy – thanks for the comments.
30 Sponge filling initially bog standard stuff (4)
BUMF – BUM(sponge) and the first letter of Filling

19 comments on “Mephisto 3113 – Tim Moorey”

  1. I’d be grateful if someone would explain how bedbug gives you B. I haven’t come across this before. Chambers was no help…

    many thanks for the blog.

    Midas

    1. I didn’t get that either. I retired hurt with the puzzle three quarters done. Three or four others I couldn’t parse, but mainly a self-inflicted wound caused by writing in “falallery’.
    2. No idea about that either .. if we are lucky, PB will pop along and enlighten us, at some point ..
      PS: it helps if people say which clue they are commenting on, 31ac in this case .. saves having to hunt through the whole thing looking for the reference
      1. Duly noted Mr White.

        Crikey! Today’s puzzle is very hard.

        Midas

    3. Chambers: “B flat or B: A 19c euphemism for a domestic bedbug”
  2. Well I wrote “Easy, 2nd week running” on my paper copy. I can’t help thinking retribution will follow.. haven’t dared to look at today’s yet.
    Liked fallalery, my WOD.
  3. More homophone controversy. ‘Horde’ isn’t a homophone of ‘whored’ (14a). Why do setters persist with this nonsense? Similar thoughts re B for bedbug, to which I would add CL for clubland (26d), which I’ve never seen. Mr Grumpy
    1. They’re perfect homophones the way I say them. I struggling to imagine how you could say them in a way they aren’t.
      And it’s not CL it’s BL!

      Edited at 2020-05-03 12:05 pm (UTC)

  4. B for Bedbug has appeared several times over the years. I seem to recall Ximenes himself using it. Now you’ve seen it, it will be a write in for you next time.

    CL for clubland far more contentious. I can’t find it in Chambers and I don’t recall seeing it before.

    Overall, this wasn’t a difficult puzzle. Today’s is a tad tougher!

  5. I have been doing Mephisto for a while now but have not commented before because I don’t always finish it. FWIW I managed an all correct solution on this one with Brawl rather than Crawl at 26dn. Centre of cluBLand being BL. And definition 2 of brawl in Chambers being an old French dance.
    1. Welcome and well spotted for 26D BRAWL. Hope you keep on commenting
      1. Thank you. I will try and drop by more often. Mephisto has been a very pleasurable addition to my crosswording life.
        1. Ta – fixed. Should have waited until the solution was out, but I wrote it up and queued it before the solution was available.
    2. Thanks for putting me right, as well. I thought C for club and L for land, but now I see that Chambers doesn’t have L as an abbreviation for land. Crawl isn’t a dance for oldies either, but at my age crawling across the dance floor is about all I can manage, which may be why I was deceived. Brawl sounds like the sort of dance punks might have done in the 70s.
  6. I enjoyed this one and finished without aids (apart from checking in dictionary) in about 1hr 10mins. Lots of friendly vocab. LOI FALLALER. George, the correct answer for 26D is BRAWL, as special_bitter explained above. COD to RECTA.
  7. I found this far easier than last week’s: it took me just over 25 minutes which is very quick for me. BRAWL seems to have caught a few people out this week: if it’s not in Chambers it’s almost certainly wrong!
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