Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I found this one a bit tougher than the last few puzzles, particularly in terms of wordplay.
In Mephisto puzzles, definitions (the most direct of which I have underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on wordplay here.
Hope the pun at the top helped you get this correct!
| Across | |
| 1 | Term of disapprobation about King and Queen’s search in Scotland (5) |
| SKIRR – SIR(term of disapprobation) surrounding K(king), then R(queen) | |
| 5 | Women once upon a time desired to be moon-eyed (7) |
| WRECKED – W(women), RECKED(desired) | |
| 10 | Time of instruction in pod beside hostel pavilion? (10, two words) |
| SCHOOLYEAR – SCHOOL(pod of whales), next to Y(youth hostel), EAR(pavilion is the outer ear) | |
| 11 | Software company beginning to actually provide bill of exchange (5) |
| ADOBE – first letter of Actually, DO(provide), BE(bill of exchange) | |
| 12 | Tree of life that’s most often seen in garden of Eden (5) |
| OPEPE – O(of), PEP(life) and the letter most commonly appearing in gardEn of EdEn | |
| 14 | We’re in the business of spinning work in mobile markets (9) |
| TOPMAKERS – OP(work) inside an anagram of MARKETS | |
| 17 | Mania about sea monster being faced (7) |
| FACETED – FAD(mania) surrounding CETE(sea monster) | |
| 19 | This reaches scads, reportedly (5) |
| LODES – sounds like LOADS(scads), reaches of water | |
| 20 | Lots of grunts with NCOs in outburst (6) |
| GALORE – OR(grunts with NCOs) inside GALE(outburst) | |
| 21 | What hurts finger? A good catch (6) |
| AGNAIL – A, G(good), NAIL(catch) | |
| 23 | Perched close to your demon of the desert (5) |
| SATYR – SAT(perched) next to YR(your) | |
| 25 | Perhaps fancifully, syrupy drink is wanting love (7) |
| WIGLIKE – SWIG(drink) minus ‘S, then LIKE(love). Syrup of figs is rhyming slang for wig | |
| 27 | Half of imposing blokes stand by paltry drug (9) |
| AUGMENTIN -half of AUGust(imposing), MEN(blokes) and TIN(paltry) | |
| 30 | A boat’s awning is on the point of falling (5) |
| ATILT – A, TILT(boat’s awning) | |
| 31 | Support fish barbie for Springboks and others (5) |
| BRAAI -BRA(support), AI(fish) | |
| 32 | Bill lecturer then watch who’s up on trends (10) |
| COOLHUNTER – COO(as in bill and coo), L(lecturer) and HUNTER(a watch with a metal case) | |
| 33 | Mugs such as Klimt painted (7) |
| KISSERS – Klimt painted The Kiss | |
| 34 | Is pound representative of cash? (5) |
| SMASH – ‘S, MASH(pound) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Canvas-climber letting down a flap (4) |
| SLAT – SALT(sailor, canvas-climber) with the A moved down | |
| 2 | I tease little one over damned karate costume being carried (10) |
| KIDOLOGIST – KID(little one), O(over), then LOST(damned) containing GI(karate costume) | |
| 3 | One provided shell for crustacean (6) |
| ISOPOD – I(one), SO(provided), POD(shell) | |
| 4 | Birds harassed hares (5) |
| RHEAS – anagram of HARES | |
| 5 | We’ve a world to gain? Women raising fork sure to hold line (8) |
| WORKFOLK – W(women) and an anagram of FORK, then OK(sure) containing L(line) | |
| 6 | Hide, once dressed, back in the bordello (4) |
| ROBE – hidden reversed in thE BORdello | |
| 7 | From the get-go could you please supply fruit? (8) |
| CYPSELAE – first letters of Could, You and an anagram of PLEASE | |
| 8 | Observe board turn over (6, two words) |
| KEEP TO – KEEP(board, provision), TO(turn over) | |
| 9 | Ultimately avid visitors to the library? They’re awe-struck (8) |
| DREADERS – last letter of aviD, then READERS(visitors to the library) | |
| 13 | Bones slip and gyrate freely (10) |
| PTERYGIALS – anagram of SLIP and GYRATE | |
| 15 | Nonsense about prior indulgence pressing British recovery? (8) |
| CLAWBACK – CACK(nonsense) containing LAW(indulgence) on top of B(British) | |
| 16 | Supposedly beneficial plants each left in digs (8) |
| HEALALLS – EA(each), L(left) inside HALLS(residences, digs) | |
| 18 | Assent to accepting mass non-smoker’s amenities in Armentières (8) |
| AGREMENS – AGREE(assent) containing M(mass), then NS(non-smoker) | |
| 22 | Trees transformed Saigon (6) |
| NGAIOS – anagram of SAIGON | |
| 24 | Conifer beside bracken (6) |
| TOTARA – TO(beside), TARA(bracken) | |
| 26 | Society girls keeping under wraps first of their duties (5) |
| DEBTS – DEBS(society girls) containing the first letter of Their | |
| 28 | Scots roughly pull up tethering a mountain beast (4) |
| GAUR – RUG(pull up, Scots) reversed containing A | |
| 29 | Poet’s just about death, euphemistically losing it (4) |
| NIGH – NIGHT(death) minus ‘T(it) | |
Tricky one. After my first pass through the clues my grid was pretty sparsely populated, and with Mephisto you always know you’re on for a bit of a grind when that happens. Fortunately the sparseness was fairly evenly distributed so I was able to gain a toehold in each corner of the puzzle.
Well, I did get about three-fourths of this, which seems pretty good for me, considering that the expert blogger deems it on the more difficult side. Haven’t gotten around to obtaining Chambers yet, the necessity of which I do recognize! I thought about not looking at the blog for a while and trying to finish first… but life is short. On to the next puzzle!