Greetings barred-grid fans.
Since I have a busy weekend, I’m writing this up in advance, and may not be able to check comments on Sunday morning, so if I have messed anything up, check to see if it has been corrected in comments.
Intersting puzzle – seems to contain a number of words that I am familiar with but with alternative spellings, two long words with the same root and four fish clued as “fish”. As is typical with Don Manley’s puzzles, trust the wordplay and you will not go wrong.
In Mephisto puzzles, definitions (the most direct of which is underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will be focusing on worplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 2 | Foul moods, one being cross (5) |
| DSOMO – anagram of MOODS | |
| 6 | Musical group is French, given position outside (6) |
| SESTET – EST(is in French) with SET(position) surrounding | |
| 10 | Fish left wrapped in magical herb (5) |
| MOLLY – L(left) inside MOLY(magical herb) | |
| 11 | One local going round lake, I caught zero fish (6) |
| ULICON – ‘UN(one locally) surrounding L(lake), I, C(caught), O(zero) | |
| 12 | One starting race from pier, motoring recklessly (12) |
| PRIMOGENITOR – anagram of PIER,MOTORING | |
| 13 | Arrogant at Oxford? Nonsense! (6) |
| UPPISH – UP(at Oxford University), PISH(nonsense) | |
| 14 | Reluctant to offer a text from the Bible? (6) |
| AVERSE – A VERSE(text from the Bible) | |
| 16 | Dig up female socialite, Greek character on the rebound (5) |
| UNBED – DEB(female socialite) and NU(Greek character) all reversed | |
| 18 | Worker entering protects clever females (8) |
| SAVANTES – a worker ANT inside SAVES(protects) | |
| 21 | Places for burning what may be burnt by feminists with heavenly body! (8) |
| BRASEROS – feminists may burn BRAS, then the asteroid EROS | |
| 25 | Second half of meal — excellent fish (5) |
| PERAI – the second half of SUPPER(meal), then AI(excellent) | |
| 28 | Rotten tot given direction (6) |
| ADDLED – ADD(tot up), LED(given direction) | |
| 29 | Foul-mouthed old wife, able to be heard exuding terrible bile (6) |
| RIBAUD – RIB(wife), then AUDIBLE(able to be heard) minus an anagram of BILE | |
| 30 | Doubling sleep, do I sing when refreshed? (12) |
| DIPLOGENESIS – anagram of SLEEP,DO,I,SING | |
| 31 | Children with uniform showing fish (6) |
| CHEVEN – CH(children) and EVEN(uniform) | |
| 32 | Clean out an old joint (5) |
| ANCLE – anagram of CLEAN | |
| 33 | Noisy type making bad error involving answer (6) |
| ROARER – anagram of ERROR cotainin A(answer) | |
| 34 | Star producing early programming language (5) |
| ALGOL – double definition | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sealed vessels when used to contain dissolved lump (6) |
| AMPULS – AS(when) containing an anagram of LUMP | |
| 2 | Communities with salmon going upstream (5) |
| DORPS – SPROD(salmon) reversed | |
| 3 | Garment split, held together by flower (8) |
| SLIPOVER – SLIVER(to split) containing PO(flower, river) | |
| 4 | Gosh, bone gets surrounded by protein! (6) |
| MYOSIN – MY(gosh), OS(bone) IN(surrounded by) | |
| 5 | Anything non-standard that is disgusting in old books (5) |
| OUGHT – UGH(disgusting) in OT(Old Testament, old books) | |
| 6 | Separated thread maybe no longer part of garment, we hear (6) |
| SLEAVE – sounds like SLEEVE | |
| 7 | Informed in secret, deviously (8) |
| SCIENTER – anagram of IN,SECRET | |
| 8 | Unions providing electronic sensors (6) |
| ENOSES – electronic sensors could be E-NOSES | |
| 9 | Creature boring into wood wrecked tree — prepare to go after it (6) |
| TEREDO – anagram of TREE, then DO(prepare) | |
| 15 | Member of secret group in taxi to go across the Channel (8) |
| CABALLER – CAB(taxi), ALLER(to go in French) | |
| 17 | Horse on racecourse stopped short on account of plant (8) |
| BARBASCO – BARB(racing horse) then ASCOT(racecourse) missing the last letter | |
| 19 | Digger parades flamboyantly — Australian coming out (6) |
| SPADER – anagram of PARADES minus A(Australian) | |
| 20 | Student perhaps given short order in next to no time (6) |
| MEDICO – EDICT(order) missing the last letter inside MO(next to no time) | |
| 22 | Plough that’s little good when stuck in piece of wire? (6) |
| RIDGER – G(good) inside RIDER(a piece of wire on a pan balance) | |
| 23 | Girl endlessly upset with spike embedded in part of body (6) |
| SPINAL – LASS(girl) missing the last letter, reversed surrounding PIN(spike) | |
| 24 | Suffering duress in eg, EastEnders (6) |
| SUDSER – anagram of DURESS for a soap opera | |
| 26 | A plot set up? We will restrict movement (5) |
| FRENA – AN(a), ERF(garden plot) all reversed | |
| 27 | Wind for musical pipe (5) |
| QUILL – double definition | |
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