Greetingd barred-grid fans.
Paul McKenna sometimes experiments with grids other than 12×12, and this is an example of an 11×13 grid. With there being one long vertical entry, the grid design breaks it up almost into two mini-puzzles, and I found I had the bottom half completed before moving up to the top.
Was it your cup of coffee?
In Mephisto puzzles the definitions can be confirmed in Chambers so I will focus on wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Hack is caught looting first from the necessary (5) |
| COUGH – C(caught) and “the necessary” can mean money, so DOUGH missing the first letter | |
| 5 | Amongst classicists this prize competition is to falter (6) |
| HICCUP – HIC(this, in Latin), CUP(prize competition) | |
| 10 | Riyadh’s fresh water transporter (6) |
| HYDRIA – anagram of RIYADH | |
| 11 | Point of culmination with Enigma’s earliest cipher? (5) |
| NO-ONE – NOON(high noon – point of culmination), and the first letter of Enigma. Cipher can mean a nobody | |
| 12 | Left with advantage after American fits tool for forger? (11) |
| ABOUTSLEDGE – L(left) and EDGE(advantage) after A(American), BOUTS(fits) | |
| 13 | Mother facing new outburst of impatience (4) |
| DAMN – DAM(mother) and N(new) | |
| 14 | Trat’s cut alternate handle in news broadcast? (7) |
| ITALIAN – ALIAS(alternate handle) missing the last letter in ITN(Independent Television News) | |
| 16 | Some feel doyenne’s spinning a special sort of song (5) |
| YODLE – hidden reversed in feEL DOYenne. Even though the wordplay was clear, I wrote YODEL in first out of habit | |
| 17 | Queen, eg, is out of bed and dressing (6) |
| CATSUP – CAT’S(queen’s), UP(out of bed) | |
| 19 | Such as connects sugary treat with a shake (11, two words) |
| TREASURY TAG – anagram of SUGARY,TREAT | |
| 23 | Moving drama with this colouring could find you daydreaming (6) |
| DYEING – anagram of DAYDREAMING minus DRAMA | |
| 26 | Obscenities, if said by some yobs they’d be of themselves! (5) |
| OATHS – I think this is suggesting that some dialect might make this sound like “OAFS” | |
| 28 | Scratch cold bread that’s a defining part of a pud (7) |
| CLOOTIE – C(cold), LOOT(bread), IE(that’s) and a definition on either end | |
| 29 | A couple touch with head to the right (4) |
| ITEM – MITE(a touch) with the first letter at the end | |
| 30 | Fish with forgotten speed — it’s the bosun’s point (11) |
| MARLINSPIKE – MARLINS(fish) and PIKE(speed – fifth definition in Chambers) | |
| 31 | He pushes back nothing when pulling in millions (5) |
| ADMAN – NADA(nothing) reversed containing M(millions) | |
| 32 | A country behind good fuel (6, two words) |
| GAS OIL – A SOIL(country) after G(good) | |
| 33 | Dress sense is finding capes (6) |
| NESSES – anagram of SENSE, ‘S | |
| 34 | Keen Yankee gets treasure or similar (5) |
| HONEY – HONE(keen), Y(Yankee) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | African language most senior officer experienced inside (6) |
| CHADIC – CIC(most senior officer) containing HAD(experienced) | |
| 2 | Old cathedral in grip of violently true measure of storm? (8) |
| UDOMETER – DOME(cathedral) inside an anagram of TRUE | |
| 3 | Small things pressured by Government beetle-crushers (6) |
| GRUNTS – RUNTS(small things) after G(Government) | |
| 4 | Chance upon answer as Advisory Board goes for it in practice (5, two words) |
| HIT IT – replace AB with IT in HABIT(practice) | |
| 5 | Careless dullard has put together simple dishes (13, two words) |
| HASTY PUDDINGS – HASTY(careless), PUDDING(dullard), ‘S | |
| 6 | Marquetry is what I do in early shifts (7) |
| INLAYER – anagram of IN,EARLY | |
| 7 | Lord who ran over what Solomon holds central in inner space (6) |
| COELOM – lord Sebastian COE and the middle letters of soLOMon | |
| 8 | Discourteous Macron’s one to irk proverbially busy crawler (9) |
| UNGALLANT – UN(one in French) then GALL(irk), ANT(proverbially busy crawler) | |
| 9 | Upset nurse coming in profoundly hammered (6) |
| PEENED – EN(nurse) inside DEEP(profoundly) all reversed | |
| 15 | Preserve power a dashing extrovert installed in Middle East (9) |
| MARMALADE – ARM(power) A, LAD(dashing extrovert) inside ME(Middle East) | |
| 18 | Unkindly townsfolk standing up changed into joining force (8) |
| STICTION – CITS(derogatory term for townsfolk) reversed, then an anagram of INTO | |
| 20 | To do with quattrocento Pope son’s on point (7) |
| SISTINE – a little stumped on this one – I can see S(son) and TINE(point), but I’m not sure how to get POPE=SI? Thanks to commenters – Pope is part of the definition and it is S, IS then TINE | |
| 21 | Tenant provided money going into loo (6) |
| SOCMAN – SO(provided), then M(money) inside CAN(loo) | |
| 22 | Shellfish soup sweetheart finally cleared away (6) |
| PHOLAS – PHO(Vietnamese soup) then LASS(sweetheart) missing the last letter | |
| 24 | With staggering poise Cicero’s last by that very fact of his (6, two words) |
| EO IPSO – anagram of POISE then the last letter of cicerO | |
| 25 | In a plucky way cathedral school’s first (6) |
| GAMELY – ELY(cathedral) with GAM(school) first | |
| 27 | Heaps ordered for festival (5) |
| PESAH – anagram of HEAPS | |
Edited at 2021-06-13 08:13 am (UTC)
28 ac. — scratch means food? Vague memory that it does but I didn’t see it in Ch.
20 d. — I took it that quattrocento went with Pope to indicate the period and the Pope who was partly responsible for the Sistine chapel. So son’s become S IS
Might that be right?
(Beat me to it by a minute!)
Edited at 2021-06-13 09:37 am (UTC)
I agree on SISTINE, which can refer to Sixtus IV, a 15th-century – or quattrocento – pope.
Edited at 2021-06-13 11:00 pm (UTC)