Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I remember this being a pretty breezy solve, but I was not sure of some of the wordplay, hopefully a second visit to the clues will sort everything out.
In Mephisto puzzles, definitions (the most direct of which to me is underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Continent that’s broken up in an age past (7) |
| PANGAEA – anagram of AN,AGE,PA(past) | |
| 6 | Add a new chart with money taken in harvest (5) |
| REMAP – M(money) inside REAP(harvest) | |
| 10 | Depressed without lively Ian and chum (9) |
| EXANIMATE – EX(without), an anagram of IAN and MATE(chum) | |
| 11 | English actor briefly in touch once (4) |
| NIGH – the actor Bill NIGHY (I know him best from Love Actually, The World’s End and Pirate Radio, but he has been in a lot) minus the last letter | |
| 13 | Mini takes tons inside? It’s still very small (6) |
| TEENTY – TEENY(mini) containing T(tone) | |
| 14 | Whiff coming from poor Chileans after exhausting marches (6) |
| INHALE – anagram of CHILEANS minus the external letters | |
| 16 | Decree absolute in official proceedings (4) |
| ACTA – ACT(decree), A(absolute) | |
| 18 | A working term for bone? (6) |
| PERONE – PER(a), ON(working) and the last letter of bonE | |
| 19 | Brothers in music following? Just (9) |
| RIGHTEOUS – double definition, the second referring to the RIGHTEOUS Brothers (Unchained Melody, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling) | |
| 22 | Stupid college lecturer casual covering the head (9) |
| CLODPATED – C(college), L(lecturer), ODD(casual) containing PATE(the head) | |
| 23 | Holiday season with lack of water? (6) |
| NOWELL – lack of water could be NO WELL | |
| 25 | Counsel in the past succeeded with no end of guff (4) |
| ARED – FARED(succeeded) minus the last letter of gufF | |
| 27 | Strain your back getting bread for an African (6) |
| ARIARY – ARIA(strain), then YR(your) reversed | |
| 29 | Building extension secures very good cleaning (6) |
| WIPING – WING(building extension) containing PI(very good) | |
| 30 | See Australian bird leaving grass in low-lying ground with lake (4) |
| VLEI – V(see) then LEIPOA(Australian bird) minus POA(grass) | |
| 31 | Ventral plate’s interstice cut out (9) |
| STERNITIC – anagram of INTERSTICE minus the last letter | |
| 32 | Quite without recipe, render what once was frothy (5) |
| YESTY – YES(indeed, quite) and remove R(recipe) from TRY(render) | |
| 33 | Apple’s CD log-in crashed (7) |
| CODLING – anagram of CD,LOG-IN | |
| Down | |
| 1 | One amateur’s withdrawn, paranoid about small dagger (7) |
| PONIARD – remove one A(amateur) from PARANOID and anagram | |
| 2 | Not favouring discount, indefinite number for nothing (4) |
| AGIN – AGIO(discount on a foreign bill of exchange) with N(indefinite number) replacing O(nothing) | |
| 3 | Evening developed, take off this! (9) |
| NIGHTGOWN – NIGHT(evening) and GROWN(developed) minus R(recipe, take) | |
| 4 | Cross lake catching nothing by chance after a salamander (7) |
| AXOLOTL – X(cross), and L(lake) containing O(nothing) and LOT(chance) after A | |
| 5 | A hint of cathedral dignitary coming from Perth (10) |
| ANTIPODEAN – AN(A), TIP(hint), O(of), DEAN(cathedral dignitary) | |
| 6 | Rob, once a governor head rejected (5) |
| RIEVE – GRIEVE(governor or sheriff) minus the first letter | |
| 7 | Old relatives force out women of the law (4) |
| EMES – remove F(force) from FEMES(legal term for women) | |
| 8 | Worried about nurse first to envy one’s present (8) |
| ATTENDEE – ATE(worried) surrounding TEND(nurse) and the first letter of Envy | |
| 9 | Exercising? Yes, reduced weight as before (5) |
| PEYSE – PE(exercising) and an anagram of YES | |
| 12 | College one to agitate about doctrine of purpose (10) |
| TELEOLOGIC – anagram of COLLEGE,I(one),TO | |
| 15 | Against high tone in short composition? They might be (9) |
| CONTRALTI – CON(against) then ALT(high tone) inside TRIO(composition) minus the last letter | |
| 17 | Clay court initially coarse not a little quiet (8) |
| CIMOLITE – first letter of Court, then IMPOLITE(coarse) minus P(quiet) | |
| 20 | United lead over Gunners one would criticise severely (7) |
| UPBRAID – U(united), PB(lead) on top of RA(gunners), I’D(one would) | |
| 21 | Leading journalist overlooks declining circulation (7) |
| EDDYING – ED(leading journalist) on top of DYING(declining) | |
| 23 | Paperboy not much used, ends on Sunday (5) |
| NEWSY – NEW(not much used) and the external letters of SundaY | |
| 24 | Shed likely to be emptied around boozer (5) |
| LINNY – external letters of LikelY surrounding INN(boozer) | |
| 26 | Scotland’s direction in cracking article (4) |
| AIRT – I(in) inside ART(article) | |
| 28 | Ditch Asian after knockout conceded (4) |
| REAN – KOREAN(Asian) minus KO(knockout) | |
Hey, I finished this one (it’s been a while) and all correct!
LOI was ARED, which means I had all but the first letter from checkers. ARED looked the most likely of all possibilities, and I found it, somewhat to my surprise, in Merriam-Webster (as a variant of “aread”; the definition here is the third).
The clue for NIGH struck me as odd. The wordplay in Mephisto often leads to a heretofore unknown word that seems to fit (you may have to check!) the apparent definition. The wordplay for NIGH leads to a common enough word, but one commonly defined slightly differently than it (or its homonym) is here, causing some hesitation.
The one thing I didn’t get to the bottom of, I think, is the Australian bird. But found the word.
I still don’t understand 14 across
What has marches got to do with the clue
I didn’t do this puzzle, but I saw your comment. Marches are borderlands. Hence “exhausting marches” means “remove the borders”, i.e. take the first and last letters off (and then use the rest to make an anagram). A bit of a stretch, perhaps, but, hey, this is a Mephisto.
Marches are the boundaries, so it is telling you to remove the external letters.
Just starting to try barred puzzles, what are the best dictionaries to use, Does anyone have any solving tips for me? I realize it is a step up and do not wish to spoil anyone’s fun
TIA Worworcrossol
I got started on Mephisto by following this blog and learning things along the way. The reference dictionary is Chambers – if you don’t want to get the whole thing and just want to check the word lists, you can use their Word Wizard webpage: https://chambers.co.uk/puzzles/word-wizard/
Mephisto allows living people, pop culture and sport references, and some substitutions that are not in the daily puzzle, like “a” for “one”.
Thank you