Mephisto 3155 – Tim Moorey

Greetings barred-grid fans.

I’m writing this up having just learned of the passing of Jim Biggin. Jim and I started blogging the daily puzzle the same week in 2007, and in May 2008 Jim started in the Mephisto rotation, which was a four-person team at the time. By the end of 2008 Jim was doing every other Mephisto after the_od left, and then when Peter B joined the Sunday Times it became Jim taking the even numbered Mephistos and me the odd numbered ones up until 2020.

I’ll miss his comments (especially our mutual rage over being accused of being stuffy, elitist and unhelpful in Mephisto blogs) and our occasional hysterical email correspondences when we were trying to line up times we were going to be away from the internet.

Fun puzzle from Tim Moorey, which I solved largely from the bottom up.

In Mephisto, definitions (the most direct of which is underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on the wordplay here. Away we go….

Across
1 West African’s ready in school indeed after dropping round (4)
CEDI –  COED(school) and I(indeed) missing O(round)
4 Ill with a stab wound from weapon in Rome (8)
BALLISTA – anagram of ILL and A STAB
9 Manage Yorkshire area land (8)
RUNDALES – RUN(manage) the Yorkshire DALES
11 Cordial about club twills (10)
CASSIMERES – CASSIS(cordial drink) surrounding MERE(club)
12 Curses keeping party member well back for Europeans (8)
BOSNIANS – BANS(curses) containing IN(party member), and SO(well) reversed
15 Instruments not loud? Get different ones (5)
LUTES – FLUTES(instruments) missing F(loud) for another instrument
16 Off-white in spring returning? Not so (4)
ECRU – SOURCE(spring) reversed minus SO
17 Action around English river in Indian vessels (8)
PATAMARS – PAS(action) surrounding the TAMAR river
18 Youngster put his shirt on horse? Ends with the bookmaker! (8)
TEENAGER – TEE shirt with NAG(horse) and the last lettesr of thE bookmakeR
20 Spurs for example start on goal with Son finishing (4)
EGGS – EG(for example), the first letter of Goal and S(son)
22 One point is vertical at sea (5)
APEAK – A(one), PEAK(point)
25 Fellow with a wife meets a young girl briefly? They can’t be trusted (8, two words)
FAUX AMIS – F(fellow), and A, UX(wide) then A, MISS(young girl) missing the last letter
26 Long forgotten, caught child on tape recorder (10)
DICTAPHONE – remove L(long) from an anagram of CHILD,ON,TAPE
27 Resort village in Greece to get new diggers (8)
SPADEMEN – SPA(resort), DEME(Greek township), N(new)
28 Noble earl behind border district (8)
MARCHESE – E(earl) after the MARCHES (border district)
29 Card digits spoken of (4)
TOSE – sounds like TOES(digits)
Down
1 Mostly difficult to decipher English poet (6)
CRABBE – CRABBY(difficult to decipher, of handwriting), missing the last letter, then E(English) for the poet George CRABBE
Edit: had the wordplay incorrect – difficult to decipher is CRABBED and English is part of the definition
2 Court pieces excited one not wanting to devolve more power (11)
EUROSCEPTIC –  anagram of COURT,PIECES
3 Heads to roll, police lack genetic data carrier (5)
IDANT – CID(police) and WANT(lack) both missing the first letter
4 Count that’s supporting polls in by-election and suchlike (5)
BASIE – IE(that is) underneath the first letters in By-election And Suchlike
5 Boss has institution for publicity in part of Ireland (8)
LEINSTER – LEADER(boss) with INST(institution) replacing AD(publicity)
6 Article about ball-game again (6)
ITERUM – ITEM(article) surrounding RU(rugby union, ball game)
7 Flipping hookers wrecked game plan (9)
STRATAGEM – TARS(hookers) revsersed, then an anagram of GAME
8 Stupid people to get second estimate (6)
ASSESS – ASSES(stupid people), S(second)
10 Trips emerge disastrously for fisherman (11, two words)
PETER GRIMES – anagram of TRIPS,EMERGE. A fisherman in a poem from 1 Down made into an opera by Britten
13 Desire for one way to meet Charles (9)
STREETCAR – STREET(way) and CAR(Charles)
14 Boarding head right away gives a tip (8)
LAGNAPPE – LAG(boarding, second definition in Chambers), then NAPPER(head) missing R(right)
18 Vehicle hit them, according to reports (6)
TANDEM – sounds like TANNED ‘EM(hit them)
19 Not entirely agreeable covering a do on ships (6)
NAUTIC – NICE(agreeable) missing the last letter, containing A UT(do)
21 Without date and without giving property title to a Scot (6)
SASINE – SA(sine anno, without date) and SINE(without)
23 Out of place, go off last part of Greek drama (5)
EXODE – remove PL(place) from EXPLODE(go off)
24 Girl one’s seen in black (5)
JANET – AN(one) inside JET(black)

9 comments on “Mephisto 3155 – Tim Moorey”

  1. I completely missed the Charles thing in STREETCAR. I just assumed he was a character in the play. I didn’t know NAPPER but LAGNAPPE was obvious once I had a couple of checkers since it is famous in New Orleans recipes to give you a little advice. I just brought up the grid to make sure I didn’t do anything silly and I’m all green.
  2. 10 minutes for RH side, best part of an hour for the LH. To say this puzzle was straightforward in many ways doesn’t do it justice. On of my pet hates in normal crosswords are clunky and clumsy surfaces – which can understandably get even clunkier in Listeners and Mephistos. This puzzle by contrast was full of super-smooth surfaces. 10d is probably the best of them.
  3. Medium-to-tough this one, about an hour of solving time on the timer. I didn’t understand 26ac: I assume the anagrind is ‘caught’? Seems a bit odd, even allowing for the broader range of such things used in Mephisto.
    I’ve commented on the sad death of Jim elsewhere but as this is Mephisto I’ll just say that he was always very sympathetic and helpful when I first started trying to do these things and needed quite a lot of help from the blogs.

    Edited at 2021-02-21 11:28 am (UTC)

Comments are closed.