Mephisto 3162 – Paul’s right, it’s wrong!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto
This puzzle turned into a lengthy struggle that spanned the week, as I slowly reduced the stubborn areas.    While I did come up with a correct and complete solution, I still cannot parse some of the cryptics.    You probably can’t either, but maybe somebody can figure out one or two of them.   Since I relied on biffing, it was not surprising that I had a couple of wrong answers messing up my solve, but eventually they were detected and corrected – thanks, Paul. 

I will offer my congratulations to those who breezed through this puzzle – I don’t expect there will be many correct solutions, even among experienced Mephisto solvers. 

Across
1 Run through check endlessly (5)
INCUR – The evident answer, but that meaning is not given in Chambers, and is listed as obsolete in the OED.   The cryptic might refer to some word meaning check with the end, or both ends, removed.
5 Mortal women cared no longer (7)
WRECKED – W + RECKED.   Here the literal is the problem – Chambers has “destroyed, rendered incapable by drink or drugs (sl).”
10 Roy is excited with fantastic machine — the future’s seen in it (10)
HIEROMANCY – Anagram of ROY + MACHINE, my FOI.
11 In Metamorphoses, yes, chap is acting with this lover of Eros (6)
PSYCHE – Anagram of YES + CHAP, giving A (acting) + PSYCHE.
12 Black discharge mostly backing indications of subs, say (5)
BLIPS –  B + SPIL[l] backwards.
14 Refrain from putting it in odd breadbasket (8)
RUMTITUM – RUM + T(IT)UM.   I had biffed  rumbelow, convincing but wrong.
16 Instrument of torture’s closure, fully hard and feasible (6)
EUPHON – [tortur]E + UP + H + ON. 
17 Special Olympian being where spirits can be picked up? (8)
SHEBEENS –  S + HEBE + ENS, a very classical clue for an Irish word.
19 Afternoon duty from the east — pan of chapattis (4)
TAVA – A + VAT backwards. 
21 Giving away $100 lightens up relief (4)
ALMS – [c]ALMS…..I think.
22 What repomen do in outlet is tense (8)
DISTRAIN – D(IS T)RAIN. 
24 Smoky fuel 50 per cent cut by Scots mugs (6)
FUMOUS – FU[el} + MOUS.
28 Haggard suffered punishment that’s at the hand of knight, eg (8)
GAUNTLET – GAUNT + LET, with two definitions for good measure.
29 Dizzy duke married at once (5, two words)
EK DUM – Anagram of DUKE M, for a bit of Hindi that has made its way into Chambers.
30 Refresh again after plugging in universal monitor (6)
IGUANA –  Anagram of AGAIN + U.
31 Local to work hard among learned getting break rarely (10)
SMITHEREEN – S(MITHER)EEN, where mither is a local dialect word, and smithereen as a verb is rarely seen.
32 Right in leaving out book’s selected passage (7)
EXCERPT – EXCE(R)PT, a chestnut I was very late to see – but my key to finishing the puzzle.
33 Levantine spirit is reflected in Greek artefacts (5)
RAKEE – Backwards hidden in [Gr]EEK AR[tefacts]. 
Down
1 Empress with residence and a motto (7)
IMPRESA – IMP + RES + A – a motto in an emblem. 
2 Reimagined onus to cap scoff about Liberal — sadly not (10, three words)
NO SUCH LUCK –  Anagram of ONUS + CH(L)UCK.   It’s not clear if chuck-1 or chuck-4 is meant – the sound of a chicken, or the food in a chuckwagon.
3 Pulp a collection of raunchy memoirs (5)
CHYME – Hidden in [raun]CHY ME[moirs].
4 Set back on that woman that’s picked up one blushing (7)
REHIRED –  HER upside-down + 1 RED.
5 Ram tucking its tail in is to twist as before (6)
WRETHE – WETHER with the R moved to the second position.
6 Mischievous actor’s last lines spoken with face out of shot (5)
ROGUE –  [acto]R + [dial]OGUE.
7 Hood’s small calibre rifle party (8)
CALYPTRA – CAL + anagram of PARTY.
8 Little French lawyer retreating from dishonest dough (5)
KNISH – KN(av)ISH, where av is a valid abbreviation for avocat. 
9 Freed from trouble, cleaner is just after vacuum (5)
DYSON – D(ail)Y’S + ON.   I’m not quite sure that on = is just, maybe something else is going on here.
13 God, one finds Latin the same in old region of Marseilles (10)
PROVIDENCE – PROV(ID)ENCE, where id is a valid abbrevation for idem. 
15 Peremptory solicitor probing a nobbler’s drug (8)
ABSOLUTE – A B(SOL)UTE, alluding to foul play on the turf.
18 Something used for spiking cocktail (7)
STINGER – Double definition.
20 To satisfy, PPE must be natural mineral (7)
ANATASE – A(-ppe,+NAT)ASE, a rather tricky substitution clue.
23 Is whip an infernally uppish Johnny? (6)
SQUIRT – ‘S QUIRT. 
24 Jargon of technical institutes eg, I suppose, is to unsettle (5)
FEESE – I don’t have a clue about the cryptic, but the answer is Spenser’s spelling of faze. 
25 Persian maître d’ I put over compliance (5)
MEDIC – ME + D + I + C, a string of lesser-know abbreviatons. 
26 Demand get-go of proprietary drug (5)
SALEP – SALE + P[roprietary].
27 Board is unproductive, you’ll need pressure at the top (5)
PLANK – P + LANK. 

10 comments on “Mephisto 3162 – Paul’s right, it’s wrong!”

  1. 1. INCUR = Run. IN (through) + CUR(B)

    9.DYSON. Just after = ON

    24. FEESE. The language spoken in colleges of Further Education might be FE-ESE.

    It was a tough one…

    Midas

  2. 2d: CHUCK and SCOFF both refer to food. Agree with Midas above re. 1a and 9d, and hats off for explaining 24d. Having parsed everything else, it was a bit silly to have a typo – an unchecked K at the start of HIEROMANCY. Definitely on the hard side.

    And I worked backwards from WRECKED to get INCUR.

  3. This took me about an hour, so I did find it quite tricky but had everything right in the end. I got 5ac by thinking of what might go with INCUR to create a Paul McKenna-style pun, which I think is a first.
  4. Very hard. I ended up with about 8 unparsed. Thanks for the explanations… and I’m another who sussed INCUR from the WRECKED.
    1. We’ve been staring at this for days — why is ‘Persian’ ‘medic’?
  6. A bit more on 2D: chuck(3) is the meaning used – for which one def. is “food”, and “scoff” as a noun = “food” too.

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