Mephisto 3127 – Don Manley

Author   glhPosted on Categories Mephisto

Greetings all – this was a rather fun puzzle from Don Manley, and I can only see a little bit of scribble in my grid where I had an original incorrect answer at 5 down (I think I confiently put in PRIMPS thinking that PIMPS were abbreviations for PIMPERNELS.

It is an elegant grid this week with 90 degree symmetry.

Definitions (the most obvious of which is underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I am going to be focusing on the wordplay in this blog.

Away we go…

Across
1 Tree with a pole (6)
WABOOM – W(with), A, BOOM(pole)
5 More and more you’ll see this Maori skirt (6)
PIUPIU – PIU(more in music) twice
9 In speech girl favouring a rhetorical device (8)
ANAPHORA – sounds like ANNA(girl), FOR(favouring), A
11 Break up resistance fighting with doom all around (11)
FRACTIONATE – R(the symbol used for resistance in some physics equations), ACTION(fighting) inside FATE(doom)
13 Bishop grabbed by fascinating woman coming round in animal skin (6)
NEBRIS – B(bishop) inside SIREN(fascinating woman) reversed
14 Islander to become ill reportedly (5)
SICAN – sounds like SICKEN
16 Part of England known to Scots (4)
KENT – KEN(known) and ‘T
17 Fish landed ultimately on short vessel (6)
DARTER – last letter of landeD, then ARTERY(vessel) missing the last letter
18 Most wise and godly person having a long time inside (6)
SAGEST – ST(saint, godly person) with AGES(a long time) inside
19 According to nature, uncertain or doubtful (6)
SNIFFY – SN(secundum naturam, according to nature), IFFY(uncertain)
22 Religious code of unorthodox maharishi? Not him, somehow (6)
SHARIA – anagram of MAHARISHI minus HIM
25 Fencer’s cry when repeatedly coming back (4, two words)
SA SA – AS(when) reversed twice
27 Organic compound, one to dig out (5)
IMINE – I(one), next to MINE(dig out)
28 Fellow in Highland attire keeping cold and unemotional (6)
PLACID – PLAID(highlander) with C(cold) inside
29 Like a sort of belief — isn’t it cheap somehow? (11)
PANTHEISTIC – anagram of ISN’T,IT,CHEAP
30 Sacred travelling around about biblical city? I fought for that (8)
CRUSADER – anagram of SACRED containing UR(biblical city) reversed
31 Feature of test — learner has problem get round nailing it (6)
LITMUS – L(leaner) then SUM(problem) reversed containing IT
32 Fabric getting chaps in tangle? The opposite (6)
MOREEN – ORE(tangle) in MEN(chaps)
Down
1 Hooligan after fighting could be this? (6)
WARNED – NED(hooligan) after WAR(fighting)
2 Rendering corrupt couple of musical sections, I celebrate (11)
BARBARISING – the musical section is a BAR, repeat that and add I SING(celebrate)
3 Abstract style of old district (5, two words)
OP ART – O(old), PART(district)
4 Sort me out — big windfall needed? (6)
MOTSER – anagram of SORT ME for a lovely piece of Aussie slang to go with the ART UNION from a few weeks ago
5 Freshens up flowers with water finally poured in (6)
PRINKS – PINKS(dianthus flowers) containing the last letter of wateR
6 Gay rarely getting heard (6)
URNING – sounds like EARNING(getting)
7 Wooden decoration from India artisan fashioned (8)
INTARSIA – I(india) then an anagram of ARTISAN
8 Lots of online groups offering advice to fisherman? (6)
USENET – the advice is USE NET. One of the first places I learned to solve cryptic clues was rec.puzzles.crosswords back in about 1987
10 Mostly support unusual rice diet as contribution to healthy living (11)
BACTERICIDE – BACK(support) mising the last letter, then an anagram of RICE,DIET
12 Fabric that’s fine for hanging up (4)
CIRE – the fine is ERIC, reversed
15 May I moan about people now being deprived of their forests? (8)
YANOMAMI – anagram of MAY,I,MOAN
19 Botanical bit left below stalk (6)
STIPEL – L(left) under STIPE(stalk)
20 Enthusiast, little man being under this illusion (6)
FANTOM – FAN(enthusiast) with TOM(little man) below
21 German attendants could be greasy (6)
YAGERS – anagram of GREASY
22 Shell, one covered in nasty spume (6)
SEPIUM – I(one) inside an anagram of SPUME
23 Time off in German region half wasted (4)
HOLS – half of HOLSTEIN(German region)
24 Sort of wooden local dignitary to put mum off (6)
ALDERN – the local dignitary is an ALDERMAN, remove MA(mum)
26 Leaves Arabia or just one of its countries (5)
QATAR – QAT(tea leaves), AR(arabia)

16 comments on “Mephisto 3127 – Don Manley”

  1. ….was with PLACID, where the opening words “Fellow in” seemed to be superfluous. A very enjoyable 31 minutes.
    1. One meaning of “plaid” in Chambers = “plaidman” which means a Highlander.
  3. I solved this in one go in 35m, so it must have been pretty straightforward.
    I was puzzled by the definition at 19ac. SNIFFY means ‘inclined to be disdainful’, which isn’t the same as ‘doubtful’.
    1. Chambers defs of “doubtful” include “not likely to participate, co-operate, etc”, which seems fair for “sniffy”.
      1. That usage is for when a football player is unlikely to take part in a game because of an injury. From there to ‘disdainful’ seems a stretch to me.
        1. It’s surely wider than that, as “co-operate” is there as well as “participate”. The OED has, for “sniffy”:

          Prone or inclined to sniff; scornful, contemptuous, disdainful; disagreeable, ill-tempered. (and the Concise Oxford has a shorter version)

          As one example, OED citations include “You were rather sniffy about meeting him.”, from Somerset Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage”

          1. ‘Uncooperative’ to ‘disdainful’ is still a stretch IMO. I can see how you get there from your examples (just about) but the definition of SNIFFY in Chambers is (rightly or wrongly) much more restrictive so this seems a rare departure from the BRB.

            Edited at 2020-08-09 10:08 am (UTC)

  4. I enjoyed this, taking just over an hour. But then I mistranscribed the answers online and was left with a pink square. I remembered NED for hooligan and ERIC for fine coming up before. Thanks Don and George.
  5. This was a satisfying solve done in a single sitting. Clear wp leading to the answers with Chambers used to verify. Very enjoyable.
  7. If the time is anything to go by, this was about as easy as Mephisto gets, my 23.37 being quicker than the ST Cryptic for the day. The wordplay worked where words were refugees from Call My Bluff, but a lot of the vocab was accessible. A gentle end to the solving day.

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