Greetings, barred-grid fans!
My greatest difficulties in this puzzle were in the top left, having a strong conviction that “park” in the clue was going to lead to P. I think near the end I scrubbed everything out in that corner and started over again, leading to a longer solve than I am used to for the Mephisto.
My take overall is that there are is a higher ratio than usual of unusual words in the grid, and I was often going to Chambers to check to see if the letter salad was actually a word.
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 | Place to park behind station (4) |
| SEAT – I was looking for all sorts of wordplay and it was a double definition. Of course, “station” is the 16th noun option for seat in Chambers, so I shouldn’t feel that bad | |
| 4 | One inclined to go wrong could be a faceless jihadi (8) |
| ERRORIST – remove the first letter from TERRORIST(jihadi) | |
| 9 | Staff managed to trim a Brazilian tree (11) |
| MACERANDUBA – MACE(staff), RAN(managed), next to DUB(trim, 4th verb option in Chambers), A | |
| 11 | Veteran Italian is old judge no longer employed (5) |
| OSCAN – O(old), SCAN(judge… a noun form here) | |
| 12 | City sort of home for the rabble (6) |
| MOBILE – double definition, the first a city in Alabama (haven’t been there), and the second part of MOBILE HOME. See comments: there is a third definition. | |
| 14 | Soldier’s half-hearted action displayed (7) |
| PARADED – PARA(soldier) and DEED(action) with only one E in the middle | |
| 15 | Cat runs away from goat’s-hair fabric (5) |
| TIBET – The cat is TIBERT from Reynard the Fox, remove R(run) | |
| 16 | Former probes are confidential (7, two words) |
| A LATERE – LATE(former) inside ARE | |
| 17 | Taking day off, two places of seclusion being discussed (6, two words) |
| EN L’AIR – remove D(day) from DEN(one place of seclusion), then LAIR(another place of seclusion) | |
| 22 | Amateur covering of trial repeatedly gets stick in US (6) |
| ATLATL – A(amateur) and the exterial letters in TriaL, all repeated | |
| 23 | House report is behind small reorganisation of Health and Safety Executive (7) |
| SHEBANG – BANG(report) after an anagram of HSE(Health and Safety Exectutive) | |
| 24 | Salmon farm in Provence near me (5) |
| MASUS – MAS(French farm), near US(me) | |
| 26 | Environment Agency calls for small ropes (7) |
| EARINGS – EA(Environment Agency), RINGS(calls) | |
| 28 | Bad error to ride a sick horse (6) |
| ROARER – anagram of ERROR surrounding A | |
| 29 | Nothing stops nurse returning for a drink (5) |
| HAOMA – O(nothing) inside AMAH(nurse) reversed | |
| 30 | Erratic Conservative PM said nothing’s wrong? A lie that’s put out (11) |
| SPASMODICAL – anagram of C(conservative),PM,SAID,O’S(nothing’s), then A, and LIE missing IE(that’s) | |
| 31 | Marmoset indeed in France seen alongside second small tree (8) |
| OUISTITI – OUI(indeed, in French), then S(second), TITI(small tree) | |
| 32 | Fan yakked about uncovered one-horse carriage (4) |
| EKKA – reverse YAKKED and remove the outer letters | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Couple given months for putting up a small child (5) |
| SMOWT – TWO(couple) and MS(months) reversed | |
| 2 | Beaten in Toulouse? That’s satisfactory but record time taken (7) |
| ACCABLE – ACCEPTABLE(satisfactory) minus EP(record) and T(time) | |
| 3 | Southerner disheartened old Greek (4) |
| TEAN – the Southerner is a TEXAN, remove the middle letter | |
| 4 | Young partner in finance managed rents (5) |
| ERNST – anagram of RENTS for the other half of Ernst & Young, though I prefer the German Dadist | |
| 5 | Batter’s role in defence (7) |
| RAMPART – RAM(batter) and PART(role) | |
| 6 | Party absorbed by Bojo’s latest bombast that’s created a stink (7) |
| ODORANT – DO(party) inside the last letter of bojO and RANT(bomast). The surface reading gave me a smile, and the timing is impeccable! I wonder if this was a late edit, as I understand that Listeners are often written and edited months in advance. | |
| 7 | Persian verse brings in tense distorted rhythms (6) |
| RUBATI – RUBAI(Persian verse) containing T(tense) | |
| 8 | Cooking ingredient Indonesian chief gets in markets (9) |
| SALERATUS – RATU(Indonesian chief) inside SALES(markets) | |
| 10 | University official in bubble tackling education (6) |
| BEDELL – BELL(a bubble formed in a liquid) containing ED(education) | |
| 13 | Question about Saigon hospital being organised for malaria treatment (9) |
| QINGHAOSU – QU(question) containing an anagram of SAIGON,H(Hospital). Glad there were only two unchecked letters in this one! | |
| 17 | Heat extremes stop Middle East project (6) |
| EXSERT – anagram of EXTREMES, minus ME(middle east) – “heat” is the anagram indicator | |
| 18 | Where you may find a cuckoo being most silly (7) |
| INANEST – you may find a cuckoo IN A NEST | |
| 19 | Cords perhaps getting fashionable in Surrey town (7) |
| BAGSHOT – BAGS(cords, trousers) and HOT(fashionable) | |
| 20 | Jam rolls are small and special for a little girl (7) |
| LASSOCK – LOCK(jam, gridlock) containing A(are), S(small) and S(special) | |
| 21 | Head of Music Society welcomes a Scottish bar that’s taken up thumb pianos (6) |
| MBIRAS – first letter of Music, and S(society) containing A, and RIB(Scottish bar of a grate). Aside on the mbira – in the USA they are called kalimbas and are strangely popular at the moment. | |
| 24 | What’s dividing leaders in Mali, Djibouti and Iraq? Not me, I’m a great leader (5) |
| MEHDI – first letters of Mali, Djibouti and Iraq surrounding EH(what) | |
| 25 | Alternatively part of spiral canal (obscure noun) (5) |
| SCALA – anagram of the first letter of Spiral and CANAL minus N(noun) | |
| 27 | Jackdaw flying around one in disused wharf (4) |
| KAIE – KAE(jackdaw) surrounding I(one) | |
This was the first Mephisto I couldn’t finish in a long time – the lower right did me in, and all my ideas about how the cryptics worked were wrong.
I found this difficult too, and it was the NW that caused me the most trouble.
Odd that the deleted T for ERRORIST should have been reissued by the preceding SEAT, adding to my occasional impression that the bar lines are not necessarily fixed during set up. A fun post solve game is to spot words that might have been included early on in the process. Well, I LIKE IT1
PLACE = TO PARK = SEAT = BEHIND = STATION?