I didn’t find this one that difficult, although I was a little slow getting started, and had to put off most of the left side until the next day. The pun didn’t help me much, and I ended up having to push through the left from the bottom to the top. It was a bit tricky to finish off the NW, and I had to research some of the cryptics to make sure everything was correct. The vocabulary was not that esoteric, although pugh was obfuscated by having two cryptics, which makes it hard to pick out the literal.
| 1 | Dismissive cry from boxer that sets off his quiet grunt of odium (4) |
| PUGH – Two cryptics: PUG + H[is], and P + UGH, take your pick. | |
| 4 | Spoil ball by the fact of being old (7) |
| PILLAGE – PILL + AGE, a simple one I should have seen more quickly. | |
| 10 | Go along with a cunning old rogue mostly (5) |
| AGREE – A + GREE[k] – more roguery attributed to foreigners. | |
| 11 | Old boring jig? (5) |
| LOURE – L(O)URE, an &lit. | |
| 12 | Coastal surveillance team watch grifter first (11, two words) |
| SHARK PATROL – SHARK + PATROL. I had biffed shore patrol , but couldn’t figure out why shore would be a grifter, so I erased it. | |
| 13 | Stodge that’s put aside is gobbled up (4) |
| SATE – ‘S ATE. | |
| 14 | Distraught Euboean’s lost barrels of bronze (7) |
| AENEOUS – Anagram of EU[b]OEAN’S. | |
| 16 | Take prescription as excellent tips from eye clinic assumed (6) |
| RECIPE – R(E[ye] C[linic])IPE. | |
| 17 | Philological Society about to smear (in a poetic sense) conclusions (6) |
| POINTS – P(OINT)S. An easy inference from ointment. | |
| 19 | Radiology department’s way in aptly rent or damaged (11, two words) |
| ENTRY PORTAL – Anagram of APTLY RENT OR. | |
| 23 | End of one special housing estate, say, demanding drop? (6) |
| ESCARP – [on]E S(CAR)P. | |
| 26 | One attendant on deity’s returning capacity to bear such as lust (6) |
| PANISC – C(SIN)AP, all backwards. | |
| 28 | Group in boozy, sweary romp where lad goes for a month (7) |
| OCTETTE – (-lad,+OCT)ETTE, where romp means a tomboy. | |
| 29 | Wetland feeder mostly finding a quantity of fish (4) |
| CRAN – CRAN[e], my FOI, a biff; I’ve been doing Mephisto for a while. | |
| 30 | Life-force racket runs, that is a style evocative of the East (11) |
| CHINOISERIE – CHI + NOISE + R + I.E. | |
| 31 | Edge near a new figment of her imagination? (5) |
| HEMAN – HEM + A + N. | |
| 32 | Stinker from translator in error (5) |
| TROUT -TR OUT, where a secondary meaning of both stinker and trout are required. | |
| 33 | Travellers like hostel with shelters (7) |
| ASYLEES – AS + Y + LEES. | |
| 34 | Zero thought when losing independent theatres (4) |
| ODEA – O + [i]DEA, another simple one. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Have nothing to do with coxcomb tucking in behind (6, two words) |
| PASS UP – P(ASS)UP, with a meaning of pup that was more common in the 18th century. | |
| 2 | Honey guide from Wellington, it appears in Uncle Sam’s old tip (8) |
| GRATUITY – GRA(TUI, ‘T)Y. A rather elaborate cryptic for a simple answer. | |
| 3 | Horse having energy for nada hoc loco? (6) |
| HEREIN – HER(-o,+E)IN, a simple letter-substitution clue that took me a while to figure out after I biffed the answer. | |
| 4 | Near the border catch up with an animal from the States (5) |
| PEKAN – KEP upside-down + AN. A fisher cat, which isn’t a cat and doesn’t fish. | |
| 5 | Review about person I have is realised realistically (13, two words) |
| IN PERSPECTIVE – IN(PER)SPECT + I’VE. | |
| 6 | Perhaps Colombian plainsman left a loner roving (7) |
| LLANERO – Anagram of L A LONER, rather obvious for an experienced solver. | |
| 7 | Simple parcel given by English children (6) |
| LO-TECH – LOT + E CH. I constructed this per instructions, and didn’t recognized it at first. | |
| 8 | Most fish round conflict finding support for collective activity (9) |
| GROUPWARE – GROUP(WAR)E[r]. | |
| 9 | Trap by the French and otherwise caught (6) |
| EELSET – E(ELSE)T. | |
| 15 | Husband who’s not a natural gent set up in shifting señor’s shields (9) |
| RONDACHES – H + CAD upside down in anagam of SENOR. | |
| 18 | With it runner’s sure stumped by broadcast on biblical race (8, two words) |
| STAIR ROD – ST + AIR + ROD, which secures the carpet. Chambers does not explain why rod can mean a race or tribe in the Bible, but it does have that meaning. | |
| 20 | With nowt pulled you put on southern accent — a precious thing (7) |
| YUSTONE – Y[o]U + S TONE. | |
| 21 | Lost age’s compliance in trust turned up before (6) |
| EPOCHA – H(C)OPE upside-down + A for ante. | |
| 22 | Splenetic fiction and note on a lecturer (6) |
| LIENAL – LIE + N + A + L. Trust the cryptic! | |
| 24 | In short form top officer subverted local tangle being a measure of type (6) |
| CICERO – C.I.C. + ORE upside-down – the seaweed, not the mineral. Yes, a cicero is a measure of type. | |
| 25 | Plantations waste away over time, one added (6) |
| PINETA – PINE + T + A, plural of pinetum. | |
| 27 | Outwits cops wanting answer (5) |
| BESTS – BE[a]STS. The police do not receive much flattery in slang. | |
Thanks Vinyl. I’ve only just started having a crack at the Mephisto, and struggled to complete this one.
Two questions. In the parsing of GRATUITY, we have TUI = Honey guide, followed by ‘T. Is the “from Wellington” indicating that the tui is a NZ bird, or that New Zealanders pronounce “it” as “‘t”?
(I took ages to get the GRAY = “Uncle Sam’s old”, assuming there was an avuncular old “Sam Gray” lurking somewhere in the past!).
And where does the “A” come from in EPOCHA? Can’t be from “age” can it, unless words are allowed to perform double duty in Mephisto clues? Also surprised to see compliance = C, any idea where that would be from?
Many thanks to setter and blogger as always.
18 d – I can’t find rod = race anywhere. Not even Google but I’ve no doubt missed something. The closest correlation I came up with is race (second meaning in Ch.) means “a sex” (obs.) and rod has a meaning as a part of the male anatomy…
Regarding gratuity, Wellington means the bird from down under and the other T is an accepted abbreviation for “it”.
In epocha the A = before (ante).
Ah. Thanks Adrian!
“Race or tribe” (Bible) is the 15th noun def of “rod” in my iPad Chambers. I’m guessing that you looked up “rod”. Sometimes you need to “look both ways”.
No, it’s worse than that. I did look (everything) up both ways BUT missed the race or tribe reference twice. Last week and today.
Hello drawing board!
As per Chambers C = COMPLIANCE. (Something to do with physics, apparently.) ROD = RACE is also in Chambers, specifically biblical.
Vinyl, for the sake of tidiness, you have a typo in the parsing of 5d – the second bracket is in the wrong place.
I liked ‘housing estate’ in 23a. As for the double wordplay in 1a, can I suggest BOGOF as an addition to the glossary?
After one more week’s experience with the Mephisto, it seems to me that pretty much any word can be used to clue its initial letter.
There are many obscure 1-letter abbreviations documented in Chambers, as well as tricky ways to indicate the first letter, as in “that sets off his” in 1 across.
Yes I had forgotten that it’s all about what’s in Chambers. Will check out the app.
I enjoyed this one – some really fun wordplay and I also enjoy when the grid is a little bit different – in this case 11×13 with long entries keeping the grid from being four separate quadrants.