Greetings barred-grid fans
I thought this one was a notch up in difficulty from the usual Tim Moorey puzzles, and I had a bunch of scribble around my grid, though only a few question marks. There’s some tricky wordplay, particularly in letter substitutions.
In Mephisto puzzles, definitions (the most direct of which is underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Official in struggle for small plant (7) |
| TREFOIL – REF(official) inside TOIL(struggle) | |
| 7 | Ace bowler perhaps brought back for South African flier (4) |
| TAHA – A(ace) and HAT(bowler, perhaps) all reversed | |
| 10 | Railway special involving diversion for some (9) |
| FUNICULAR – PARTICULAR(special) with FUN(diversion) replacing PART(some). A term emblazoned in my mind after multple viewings of The Grand Budapest Hotel | |
| 11 | One month to get a measure of Sky (4) |
| OCTA – OCT(October, one month), A | |
| 13 | Rowing movement ending in hullabaloo and absolute fury (6) |
| OARAGE – last letter in hullabaloO, A(absolute), RAGE(fury) | |
| 14 | Eagle seen in ground briefly on a swamp (7) |
| LERNEAN – ERNE(eagle) inside LAND(ground) missing the last letter | |
| 16 | Scottish lover long forgotten by Indian head (4) |
| MAIK – remove L(long) from MALIK(head of a village in India) | |
| 18 | Girl, 50 gets entry for a year (5) |
| ANNAL – ANNA(girl) and L(50) | |
| 19 | Will’s share is a large draw (9) |
| ALLOTTERY – A, L(large), LOTTERY | |
| 21 | Boiler has to be put out? Extinguisher needed (9) |
| ABOLISHER – anagram of BOILER,HAS | |
| 24 | Hour with a German poet (5) |
| HEINE – H(hour) and EINE(a, in German) | |
| 25 | Bird in shed is a blackbird (4) |
| MERL – MERLIN(bird) minus IN | |
| 27 | What would be misplaced as Germany, east coast? Worms (7) |
| CESTODA – anagram of D(Germany), E, COAST | |
| 29 | Handle ordered from Athens (6) |
| SNEATH – anagram of ATHENS | |
| 30 | Magistrate has space for writing device (4) |
| J-PEN – JP(Justice of the Peace, magistrate), then EN(space) | |
| 31 | Cheers much reduced parking in the end (9) |
| TOODLE-PIP – OODLES(much) missing the last letter and P(parking) inside TIP(the end) | |
| 32 | Beginning short of energy once (4) |
| ONST – ONSET(beginning) minus E(energy) | |
| 33 | Inferior leader of orchestra getting duet’s lower part (7) |
| SECONDO – SECOND(inferior) and the first letter of Orchestra | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Loony mate ignoring tips at work — he’s associated with many a vice (7) |
| TOOLMAN – anagram of LOONy and MATe | |
| 2 | Run one, or two if start’s recalled (4) |
| RACE – odd clue, as I think there are two wordplays – R(run), ACE(one) and BRACE(two) missing the first letter | |
| 3 | Weaver from Portuguese resort cheated, nothing less (9) |
| ESTRILDID – the resort is ESTORIL, remove the O(nothing), then DID(cheated) | |
| 4 | Thoroughly upset stuff in contest? (6) |
| OUTEAT – OUT(thoroughly), EAT(upset) | |
| 5 | Heraldic beasts painted in cellulose, not for all to see (10) |
| LIONCELLES – anagram of IN,CELLULOSE minus U(for all to see) | |
| 6 | Having no direction, senior nurses caught sadly short (6) |
| SCALAR – SR(senior) containing C(caught) and ALAS(sadly) missing the last letter. No direction mathematically | |
| 7 | Expression heard for body of soldiers years ago (4) |
| TURM – sounds like TERM(expression) | |
| 8 | Have teg finally, thanks to a shepherd’s club (8) |
| HAG-TAPER – HA(have), the last letter of teG, TA(thanks), next to PER(a) | |
| 9 | One old coin associated with a quarter (5) |
| AREAL – A(one), REAL(old coin) | |
| 12 | Minor motoring brushes can lead to combustible cases (10) |
| CARTOUCHES – minor motoring touches would be CAR TOUCHES | |
| 15 | Party member overseeing golf tournament made public (9, three words) |
| IN THE OPEN – IN(party member) over THE OPEN(golf tournament) | |
| 17 | Wilde’s bachelor, large libertine with no end of invention (8) |
| ALGERNON – anagram of LARGE, then NO and the last letter of inventioN – Algy from The Importance of Being Earnest | |
| 20 | Lorna Doone novel one’s left in US city (7) |
| ORLANDO – anagram of LORNA,DOONE minus ONE | |
| 22 | German vehicle project (6) |
| BEETLE – double definition | |
| 23 | Like ancient Greek music, sparkling stuff fills one part of concert (6) |
| IASTIC – ASTI(sparkling stuff) inside I(one) and the first letter of Concert | |
| 24 | Must stop eating nuts when short of money (5, two words) |
| HAS TO – HO(direction to stop) containing MAST(nuts) missing M(money) | |
| 26 | With weak acting, Director’s beginning to try black lead (4) |
| WADT – W(weak), A(acting), D(director) and the first letter of Try | |
| 28 | Duncan’s end: heartlessly cut up (4) |
| DEID – DICED(cut) missing the middle letter, reversed. | |
See you next week!