Greetings, barred-grid fans.
After two weeks with new setters we are back to the familiar territory with Tim Moorey. This has all the hallmarks of the classic Tim Moorey puzzle – some sportsball, some recent cultural references, and precise wordplay. I found the down clues considerably more accessible than the acrosses.
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 | Partner, last out of ale-house hides endless urination? It’s the drink! (7, two words) |
| PALEALE – PAL(partner) and the last letter in ale-housE containing LEAK(urination) minus the last letter. I expect the clue was written with the surface in mind, but it is unfortunate that “ale” is in the answer and the clue but not actually part of the wordplay. | |
| 6 | Sword guard found in a police raid rebuffed (5) |
| TSUBA – A, BUST(police raid) all reversed | |
| 10 | Bond’s holding back fine image of Mr Big? (4) |
| EFIT – TIE(bond) reversed containing F(fine) | |
| 11 | Dance company work in progress (8) |
| COTILLON – CO(company), TILL(work), ON(in progress). This is a really popular term in the USA, and if you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend Voyage of the Space Aliens, a movie where a cotillon is a major “plot” point | |
| 12 | Rude person and hooligan to be approved (9, two words) |
| GO THROUGH – GOTH(rude person), ROUGH(hooligan). Although it is confirmed in Chambers, as someone who in the late 80s would dye my long hair black, wear make-up and go to nightclubs to bum people out and shuffle to Tones On Tail and Bauhaus, I resent this use of GOTH | |
| 15 | With a tendency to disappear, slightly mad about Penny (4) |
| FADY – FAY(slightly mad) surrounding D(penny) | |
| 16 | Nameless Chinese contrived instability in harbour (6) |
| SEICHE – anagram of CHINESE minus N(name) | |
| 17 | Sheep: yearling and two-year-old seen around another yearling (6) |
| HOGGET – HOG(yearling sheep) then TEG(two-year old) reversed | |
| 18 | Old alphabet from elsewhere in eastern learning, half forgotten (10) |
| ESTRANGELO – STRANGE(from elsewhere) in E(eastern), and half of LORE(learning) | |
| 20 | Match of the Day perhaps sets up on pitch (10) |
| SPORTSCAST – SPORTS(sets up) and CAST(pitch) | |
| 24 | Henry and John raise an outcry (6) |
| HALLOO – HAL(nickname for Henry in King Henry IV) and LOO(toilet, john) | |
| 25 | Storm caused by a spreading hospital mistake (6) |
| HABOOB -A inside H(hospital), BOOB(mistake) | |
| 26 | Truce after dropping by to make advance payment (4) |
| ARLE – BARLEY(truce) minus BY | |
| 29 | Mercenary freebooters having time for poet (9) |
| PINDARIST – PINDARIS(mercenary freebooters), and T(time) | |
| 30 | Structures of common literature (8) |
| COMPAGES – COM(common), PAGES(literature) | |
| 31 | The old mostly deny French cafe owner on TV (4) |
| RENE – RENEY(deny) minus the last letter. This might be tricky for my fellow Americans, as I don’t think the show ‘Allo ‘Allo ever made a mark over here. It infected Australian TV in the 80s. Rene Artois was the owner of Cafe Rene. | |
| 32 | Character shown by Earl Thomas (5) |
| ETHOS – E(earl), THOS(Thomas) | |
| 33 | Quivery when winter in Paris? (7) |
| ASHIVER – AS(when), HIVER(winter in Paris) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fish harpoon used by a South American (7) |
| PEGASUS – PEG(harpoon), A, S(south), US(American) | |
| 2 | Scottish joint set fire to, hydrant found in the end (4) |
| LITH -LIT(set fire to) and H(hydrant) | |
| 3 | Itches to change morality rules (6) |
| ETHICS – anagram of ITCHES. | |
| 4 | Brazilian state measure (4) |
| ACRE – double definition. Tiny state in Brazil. | |
| 5 | They’d be watching a beauty by Spurs striker? (9) |
| LOOKERS-ON – LOOKER(a beauty) and the Spurs striker is the Korean national SON Heung-Min. I had no clue about the footballer, thankfully the definition left no other possibility | |
| 6 | Cross long with Italian on the wing (6) |
| TIGLON – anagram of LONG and IT(Italian) | |
| 7 | Sons for takeaway refuse dregs (6) |
| ULLAGE – remove S(sons) from SULLAGE(refuse) | |
| 8 | Where you may find brass doorbells buzzed! (9) |
| BORDELLOS – anagram of DOORBELLS | |
| 9 | Hot or sweet starter put out for Scot often serving (4) |
| ANDY – I hope I have this sorted out. Hot would be RANDY and the sweet is CANDY. Remove the first letter of both of them to get the Glasgow-born tennis player ANDY Murray | |
| 13 | Wobbly opera star gets the bird (9, two words) |
| SEA PARROT – anagram of OPERA STAR | |
| 14 | Nothing emerging, poor choirs head axes (9) |
| RHACHIDES – anagram of CHOIRS,HEAD minus O(nothing) | |
| 19 | Spacecraft is right inside by the way (7) |
| ORBITER – R(right) inside OBITER(by the wat) | |
| 21 | Mark in greeting set up Irishman (6) |
| OLLAMH – M(mark) in HALLO(greeting) reversed | |
| 22 | Fellow very much alto replacing tenor (6) |
| TOBIAS – TO BITS(very much) with A(alto) instead of T(tenor) | |
| 23 | They could form force in Asti regularly (6) |
| SBIRRI – BIRR(force) in alternating letters in aStI | |
| 26 | Directionless light cavalry soldier formerly up north (4) |
| ANCE – remove L and R(left and right, directions) from LANCER(light cavalry soldier) | |
| 27 | Baldrick stokes remains of fire (4) |
| SASH – S(stokes, unit) ASH(remains of fire) | |
| 28 | Time running out, outfit starts to employ venture capital (as before) (4) |
| KIEV – remove T(time) from KIT(outfit) then first letters of Emply Venture | |
I found this one pretty tricky, it took me nearly an hour and I got quite stuck a couple of times.
I too found it a bit of a slog. Hadn’t realised Andy Murray was born in Glasgow: he’s more usually associated with Dunblane. Re. 15a: I remembered being reprimanded for using PENNY to signify D in a clue-writing competition. (Apparently I should have qualified it with OLD.) Wonder who the judge was.