Greetings barred-grid fans!
I remember a slow and steady solve for this one, and after my last write-up, I waited until the solution was available to make sure that I have the correct solution (sigh of relief). Tim Moorey usually treats us to some pop culture, amusing surfaces and complicated wordplay and this puzzle has all of that.
In Mephisto puzzles, definitions (the most direct of which I have underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Joy unbounded: Irons playing a duke (6) |
| ORSINO – jOy missing the exterior letters, then an anagram of IRONS. Great surface and the duke is from Twelfth Night | |
| 5 | Customs of Putin’s enemy wasting time (6) |
| THEWES – Putin’s enemy is THE WEST, remove T(time) | |
| 9 | Individual spent leaving minimum of debt? Micawber’s conclusion: misery (11) |
| PARTY-POOPER – PARTY(individual) and POOPED(spent) minus the first letter of Debt, then the last letter of micawbeR | |
| 11 | Badly missing a positive show when Roger’s away (9) |
| APPETENCE – A, P(positive), PRETENCE(show) minus R(roger) | |
| 12 | Black and white principally for married dandy (5) |
| SWART – first letter of White replacing M(married) in SMART(dandy) | |
| 13 | Annual loaned with difficulty but only one left (6) |
| LENTIL – LENT(loaned) and ILL(difficulty) with one L(left) | |
| 14 | Neat hair Melanie cut back (5) |
| MARTS – STRAMMEL(hair) reversed minus MEL(short for Melanie) | |
| 18 | Heard dog barking in Irish port (8) |
| DROGHEDA – anagram of HEARD DOG | |
| 19 | Manage after soot damaged instrument for the ear (8) |
| OTOSCOPE – COPE(manage) after an anagram of SOOT | |
| 21 | Eastern Muslims mostly gloomy (5) |
| MOROS – MOROSE(gloomy) missing the last letter | |
| 22 | Rib the monarch about succession? On the contrary (6) |
| LIERNE – ER(the monarch) inside LINE(succession) | |
| 24 | A short normal term in yoga (5) |
| ASANA – A, then SANE(normal) missing the last letter, and the last letter in yogA – an all-in-one | |
| 26 | Foreign relations favouring claimants to French throne (9) |
| ORLEANIST – anagram of RELATIONS | |
| 27 | All crime is up after Tory rule with ministers leading the way (11) |
| CLERICALISM – anagram of ALL,CRIME,IS after C(conservative, Tory) | |
| 28 | Western Samoa in retreat? Indeed that’s a dream (6) |
| SWEVEN – WS(Western Samoa) reversed, then EVEN(indeed) | |
| 29 | One of Mohammed’s wives advanced indeed in this year (6) |
| AYESHA – A(advanced), YES(indeed), HA(hoc anno, in this year) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Ring up about special piece (4) |
| OPUS – O(ring) then UP reversed, S(special) | |
| 2 | Unwanted material moved eastward (8) |
| RADWASTE – anagram of EASTWARD | |
| 3 | Independent pro behind news agency (8) |
| ITAR-TASS – I(independent), TART(pro), ASS(behind) | |
| 4 | Charlie cycling in China (4) |
| OPPO – POOP(charlie, nincompoop) cycling | |
| 5 | Jumps on ice ruffled loose top (8, two words) |
| TOE LOOPS – anagram of LOOSE,TOP | |
| 6 | Exhausted soldiers wanting Sergeant-Major as promised earlier (5) |
| HOTEN – exhausted soldiers would be SHOT MEN, remove SM(Sergeant-Major) | |
| 7 | Journey once over sides of lake and rock for gastropod mollusc (10) |
| WENTLETRAP – WENT(journey once) then the exterior letters in LakE, and TRAP(traprock, igneous rock) | |
| 8 | Multinational’s account first to show records from years ago (8) |
| SHELLACS – SHELL(multinational), AC(account) and the first letter in Showjarg | |
| 10 | Fruit container missing? Will end in charge (10) |
| JARGONELLE – JAR(container), GONE(missing), ‘LL and the last letter in chargE | |
| 14 | Decayed woody stuff sounds like what should prolong a fire (8) |
| MOORLOGS – sounds like MORE LOGS for the fire | |
| 15 | Fabulous bird in African country trained (8) |
| BROKEN-IN – ROK(fabulous bird) in BENIN(African country) | |
| 16 | Mavis arranged short let (8) |
| THROSTLE – anagram of SHORT,LET | |
| 17 | Warn about choice of food keeping only half a day (8) |
| ADMONISH – A(about), DISH(choice of food) containing half of MONday | |
| 20 | Three directions covering army regulation? It’s a trap (5) |
| SNARE – the directions are S,N and E. Insert AR(army regulation) | |
| 23 | Muscovite with perfect cleavage foremost in making innocent chap amorous (4) |
| MICA – first letters in Making Innocent Chap Amorous | |
| 25 | Meeting accepted its last couple, for example (4) |
| AGMA – AGM(annual general meeting), A(accepted). The ng at the end of meeting is an agma | |
I have never seen ‘agma’, only ‘engma’ (the International Phonetic Association calls the symbol for a velar nasal, [n] but with a right descender, ‘Eng’).
I got AYESHA, but couldn’t account for the HA.
My solve was certainly slow, not sure it was steady. It took me about 50 minutes over several sessions.
I found this quite tricky taking 1hr 27mins. I needed help to get PARTY POOPER, which I failed to parse, and MARTS and couldn’t see how OPPO worked. Thanks Tim and George.