Greetings barred-grid fans.
I remember having quite a bit of difficulty finishing this one and looking up several wordplay elements in Chambers. I think I have it all sorted out for the blog, fingers crossed.
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 | Amazed to be missing a grand time in Hawaii (4) |
| HAST – AGHAST(amazed) missing A, G(grand) | |
| 4 | Person regularly left off society A-list? (8) |
| PROSAIST – alternating letters in PeRsOn then remove L(left) from S(society), A-LIST | |
| 10 | Scottish bishop and sailor wandering from the right path (10) |
| ABERRATING – ABER(bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney), RATING(sailor) | |
| 12 | Italian boat used by navy to store a thick fabric (7) |
| BARACAN – BARCA(Italian boat), and N(navy) containing A | |
| 13 | Police officer’s spirited second marriage (6) |
| DIGAMY – DI(police officer), GAMY(spirited) | |
| 14 | Grumble about replacing parking for flight (5) |
| GRICE – GRIPE(grumble) with C(about) replacing P(parking) | |
| 15 | Fellow leaving company rebuffed a scan (3) |
| MRI – remove F(fellow) from FIRM(company) reversed | |
| 16 | Day with cops for Aberdeen rugby game? (4) |
| DARG – this was my last in and I think the whole is an all-in-one referring to DARG meaning a day’s work in Scotland. The wordplay is D(day) and the first letters of Aberdeen Rugby Game, with cop meaning the head | |
| 17 | WI fruit cake put out last on table (5) |
| ACKEE – anagram of CAKE and the last letter in tablE | |
| 19 | School orations on failing could make you tense (6) |
| AORIST -anagram of ORATIONS minus ON | |
| 24 | Greek markets previously reckless, curtailed (6) |
| AGORAS – AGO(previously), then RASH(reckless) minus the last letter | |
| 25 | Reported extremely stupid reductions in size (5) |
| DENTS – homophone of DENSE(extremely stupid) | |
| 26 | This beast loves the extremes of Indian desert? (4) |
| OONT – O and O(loves) and the last letters in indiaN deserT | |
| 29 | Game long forgotten in Japanese plant (3) |
| UDO – the game is LUDO, remove L(long) | |
| 30 | Neat figures with zero entered for one (5) |
| STOTS – STATS(figures) with O(zero) instead of A(one) | |
| 31 | Join end of yarn to quantity of cloth? (6) |
| PIECEN – last letter of yarN next to PIECE(quantity of cloth) | |
| 32 | Pointer put out to show part of skull (7) |
| PTERION – anagram of POINTER | |
| 33 | Press alongside posh lodger and officer (10) |
| LIEUTENANT – LIE(press) next to U(posh), TENANT(lodger) | |
| 34 | Grasses lead in endless arguments outside the Bull (8) |
| ESPARTOS – first letter in Endless, then SPARS(arguments) surrounding T’ (the) O (I thought it was ♉︎ – the symbol for Taurus, the Bull, but see the comments – it is the shape of the bullseye in darts) | |
| 35 | Large number in New York drunk, bar closing (4) |
| SLUE – SLUED(drunk) minus the last letter | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Initial letters from His Majesty help female attendant (8) |
| HANDMAID – the first letters in His Majesty are H AND M, then AID(help). The first time I’ve spotted the new head of state in a puzzle, though I suspect this was an easy edit from a clue written before the recent passing of the previous HM | |
| 2 | Being surrounded by water is great on the rocks (7) |
| SEA-GIRT – anagram of IS,GREAT | |
| 3 | Hear publicity sounding like criminal group? (5) |
| TRIAD – homophone of TRY(hear), AD(publicity) | |
| 4 | First chief out of line (5) |
| PRIMA – PRIMAL(first) minus L(line) | |
| 5 | Go batting with tail — absolute pain around pavilion? (7) |
| OTALGIA – anagram of GO, TAIL then A(absolute) | |
| 6 | Gentleman’s to go up north for green bird (7) |
| SIRGANG – SIR(gentleman) and GANG(go, Scots) | |
| 7 | Nihilist in one demo, not the first (6) |
| ANARCH – AN(one) and MARCH(demo) minus the first letter | |
| 8 | Trainee accepted as improved (10, two words) |
| SPACE CADET – anagram of ACCEPTED,AS | |
| 9 | One from Balmoral, companion of the King — no sign of Harry (4) |
| TANE – THANE(King’s companion) minus the first letter in Harry | |
| 11 | Utter poise needed for dancing such? (10) |
| PIROUETTES – anagram of UTTER,POISE | |
| 18 | Note, term for this: “stone” I fancy (8) |
| ESSONITE – E(musical note), last letter in thiS, and an anagram of STONE,I | |
| 20 | Rather effeminate relative getting rise for working (7) |
| SISSIER – SIS(relative) and an anagram of RISE | |
| 21 | Produce call for a Marxist to be deselected? (7, two words) |
| TROT OUT – two definitions, the second a little cryptic | |
| 22 | Bound by ceasefire, very good time for Corps (7) |
| TRUCIAL – CRUCIAL(very good) with T(time) replacing C(corps) | |
| 23 | Offhand about limits of test showing up yellowish oxide (6) |
| YTTRIA – AIRY(offhand) reversed around exterior letters in TesT | |
| 27 | Veteran eyes fish in Nova Scotia (5) |
| NIDES – IDE(fish) in NS(Nova Scotia). Eyes meaning brood here | |
| 28 | Greens defending energy sector principally? Makes money for some in Asia (5) |
| TEINS – TIN(money, greens) containing E(energy) and the first letter in Sector | |
| 30 | Forecast for Perth: flood with temperature dropping (4) |
| SPAE – SPATE(flood) minus T(temperature) | |
34A: an easier idea is that the bull = (darts board) bullseye looks like a letter O.
But who takes the easy way out?
How does either parsing explain the R? It could be spars instead of spats, but then you’ve got TO in the middle.
Oh, oops – it’s SPARS and then the ‘T comes from THE. I’ll fix it.
It doesn’t matter for Mephisto purposes, but t’ is a confusing bit of orthography. The northern English dialect pronunciation of “the” which it represents is a glottal stop, and in phrases like “Shu[t] door lad”, (a possible instruction to me long ago from someone on the originally Lancastrian side of my family), where it would follow another one, the whole word disappears in speech. [And the resemblance to ’t representing the shortened “not” in “isn’t” probably doesn’t help.]
A more Yorkshire version was, ‘Put wood in’t hole!’
I think the reason t’ for the is a confusing bit of orthography is because it seems to appear often(see blog and Meldrew’s example) as ‘t. When I read ‘t I look for what letter(s) the apostrophe is replacing and discover to my puzzlement it’s the two letters after the t!
I found this really difficult. I was baffled by the surface reading of 16ac but now it occurs to me that a day at a rugby match would be a day’s work for a copper.
Was not at all convinced by 16a. I could see the wordplay, but there was no obvious definition, and I don’t think it works as an all-in-one, since there’s no real implication of work or a task being undertaken. ‘Work for a day with cops …..’ would have allowed to me to submit confidently.
On reading the blog, however, I’m glad I didn’t, because I had a careless GRIPE for 14a.