Mephisto 3164 – Donovan, my Ninja Turtle

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

I made good progress for a while, but then had trouble finishing.   I picked away at the more difficult answers for a couple of days, but in the end I was most thoroughly stuck.     Consulting with a friend (Jeremy), I discovered that the cause of my problem was a wrong crossing word due to poor handwriting – I had found it in Chambers, but my transcription left something to be desired.   Once that was corrected, the answer was obvious.

I still say it is hard, and there is one clue I don’t get at all.   At least my answers were correct, although some went in with a shrug.   Audience participation time!

Across
1 Insect with wings clipped crawled around (5)
EGGAR – [d]RAGGE[d] backwards.
5 Chinese copier used in Chancery department once (7)
HANAPER – HAN APER, a receptacle for a drinking goblet, which got transfered somehow to the Clerk of the Hanaper, who sealed writs.
10 Outburst about awfully gory and bizarre ornament (8)
GARGOYLE –  GA(anagram of GORY)LE.
12 Study a spot in retreat behind pub with projecting gallery (10)
BARTIZANED – BAR + DEN A ZIT backwards.
13 Issue in volume put into eastern language (8)
SEMITIZE – S(EMIT)IZE.
15 Lady’s loose gown unsettling to boyfriend (3)
MAN – MAN[to], more commonly manteau.
17 Thrash for one with large appetite (5)
WHALE – Double definition. 
18 Footless fools seen in boozers (4)
SOTS – [be]SOTS, perhaps?  Discussion invited.
19 Room on boat in choppy sea for reserves (8)
EARMARKS – EA(RM + ARK)S, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of SEA.
20 Oxidised element in battery one changed (8)
YTTERBIA – Anagram of BATTERY I.
22 Lacking focus, newspaper closed years ago (4)
SHET – SH[e]ET.
24 Could be represented as one term in yoga (5)
ASANA – AS AN A.
26 Men in board game out of bounds (3)
HES – [c]HES[s].
27 Asphalt processed in quantities without cover (8)
UINTAITE – Anagram of [q[UANTITIE[s]. 
29 One of the military brass, amazing Sir Tom enthrals Britain on reaching a ton (10)
TROMBONIST – Anagram of SIR TOM around B, ON, + T[on]. 
30 John Laing surprisingly coming first to supply a church member (8)
ANGLICAN – Anagram of LAING + CAN.
31 Record again with one feeling regret piano’s missing (7)
REENTER – RE[p]ENTER.
32 No small seat for Roman magistrate (5)
EDILE – [s]EDILE, my FOI, a biff.  I had to check to make sure sedile existed.
Down
1 Leaks what Cockney ’umorist does in audition (6)
EGESTS – Sound like ‘E JESTS.
2 Fish from historic Scottish bar close to Dundee (4)
GADE – GAD + [Dunde]E.   A gad was a device in Scottish gaols used to secure the prisoner.
3 Stone taken off instead of getting over (5)
AGAIN – AGAIN[st], and nothing to do with agate, as I first supposed.
4 Boisterous locally, two score runs for side in Fremantle (5)
RORTY – (-f,+R)orty, a simple letter-substitution clue.
6 Brazilian book out trashes dyeing matter (8)
ALIZARIN – anagram of [b]RAZILIAN.
7 Chief officer overseeing police station not available for releasing lady (6)
AGATHA – AGA + THA[na].   Not only Scots, but Hindi today.
8 Criticise rating on child right away showing all is in flux (9, two words)
PANTA RHEI – PAN TAR + HEI[r].   A Greek saying, a fragment of Heraclitus, and quite a very famous one.   I thought of it immediately, but I needed the crossers to be convinced that’s what it was.
9 Smart youths take lingerie leaving note (6)
RUDIES –  R + U[n]DIES, a bit of 80s Two-Tone slang.
11 Madrigal composer number one approves current cast (7)
WEELKES – WEE + L[i]KES.   I had listened to his music, but it took me a while to remember him.
14 Dull area rather for underground store (9)
MATTAMORE – MATT + A + MORE. 
15 No end of worship in excited press after Captain raised lots of money (7)
MOTSERS –  TOM backwards + anagram of [p]RESS, giving some Aussie slang.
16 Region consumes one timeless refreshment, a frothy dessert (8)
ZABAIONE –  Z(A BAI[t])ONE, the one where I somehow managed to write zabalone, holding up progress.
20 Reversing forgotten award and benefit heads off clash (6)
YATTER –  I biffed the answer, but I don’t get the cryptic – it’s probably two words backwards, each missing the first letter. 
21 No date in family upset the last in line (6, two words)
ENDMAN – ND in NAME upside-down.
23 Stimulant from introduction of tonic put before German poet (6)
THEINE – T + HEINE.  Caffeine when found in tea.
25 Old-fashioned manner, Tom’s foremost indeed in celebrity book put out (5)
STILE – S(T[om], I)LE[b].   a rather difficult cryptic for an obvious answer.  I is a valid abbreviation for indeed.
26 Strict Jew carries a passport, for instance (5)
HASID – HAS ID, an easy one.
28 Time in Scotland of last waltz? (4)
TWAL – Hidden in [las]T WAL[tz], twelve to those in the southern parts of Britain.

7 comments on “Mephisto 3164 – Donovan, my Ninja Turtle”

  1. 20d. Reverse of ARETT (Edmund’s award) and PAY, both beheaded.

    SOTS – no idea, though I was well on the way to being one last night when I finished this.

  2. I = indeed: not quite an abbreviation – one meaning of “I” in Chambers is “same as ‘aye'” and “indeed” is one of the “aye” defs. The abbreviation meanings of I are listed separately.
    1. That did occur to me, but I ignored my own advice, and didn’t consult Chambers, which does of course include this definition.

      And yes, it was tough.

  4. Funny – I got held up in the same area but it was by writing in UNITAITE. The rest went in pretty readily.
  5. I found this much harder graft, coming home in just under the hour.
    The John Laing clue was a shaft of light, not just because it was relatively easy, but because it referenced the excellent Laing family tradition which funds many charities to the present day. The original John Laing’s roots were in the Plymouth Brethren, rather than the Established Church, but I don’t think he’d have minded too much.

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