Greetings, barred-grid fans!
This was a pleasant diversion on a wet and miserable Sunday morning for me. Strangely enough, there were fewer unknown words in this grid than in the daily puzzle I blogged on for Thursday, though the wordplay is a bit sneaker here.
For those of you newer to Mephisto, compound anagram clues where you have to find the letters for the anagram from parts of the clue, sometimes with subtractions of complete or partial words are fair game, and there are a few of them here.
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 | Virgin travel agent in ad with image for a resort (12, two words) |
| MAIDEN VOYAGE – ENVOY(agent) inside an anagram of AD and IMAGE | |
| 10 | Contemporary English version bound in black material (6) |
| COEVAL – EV(English version) inside COAL(black material) | |
| 12 | Unsheathed axe to split (5) |
| LEAVE – remove the outer letters of CLEAVER(axe) | |
| 13 | Unripe plums, 50 per cent off (5) |
| GREEN – GREENGAGES(plums) minus the second half | |
| 14 | A right shower caught and put on trial (7) |
| ARRAIGN – A, R(right) then sounds like RAIN(shower) | |
| 15 | Vale Academy kick off against United (5) |
| ADIEU – A(academy), DIE(kick off) and U(united) | |
| 17 | Indian side tap it around after tea (8) |
| CHAPATTI – anagram of TAP IT after CHA(tea) | |
| 18 | Most unwelcoming foreign cities (6) |
| ICIEST – anagram of CITIES | |
| 19 | Fed with snippets of lurid exposé for reporter (6) |
| LEGMAN – G-MAN(federal agent, fed) next to the first letters of Lurid Expose | |
| 22 | Afternoon snooze in confines of comfortable sofa (6) |
| CANAPE – A(afternoon), NAP(snooze) inside the exterior letters of CanapE | |
| 24 | Disheartened cake lover not very happy about WI cooking (6) |
| CREOLE – anagram of the outer letters of CakE and LOvER mins V(very) | |
| 25 | What could be reinterpreted as “sods”, no? (8) |
| SO-AND-SOS – anagram of AS,SODS,NO | |
| 27 | Abuse Simon Cowell on a regular basis? I’ll do that (5) |
| WILCO – anagram of alternating letters in sImOn CoWeLl | |
| 28 | Supreme Court historically imprisons pompous Colonel made penniless (7) |
| SUBLIME – SUE(court, historically) containing Colonel BLIMP minus P(penny) | |
| 30 | Troy squeezes head off pimple (5) |
| ILIUM – remove the first letter from MILIUM(pimple) | |
| 31 | Back part of house vacated, holes found underground (5) |
| CAVES – hidden reversed in houSE VACated | |
| 32 | Lecturer wearing a tatty grey sweater (6) |
| ARGYLE – L(lecturer) inside A and an anagram of GREY | |
| 33 | Restaurant’s introducing decrees after tumbling industrial espionage targets (12, two words) |
| TRADE SECRETS -TRAT’S(restaurant’s) containing an anagram of DECREES | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Black carbon in metal forged when temperature’s dropped (7) |
| MELANIC – anagram of C(carbon), IN, METAL minus T(temperature) | |
| 2 | Country clubs are below accepted value suffering shortfall (7) |
| AMERICA – C(clubs, think playing cards), A(are) under A(accepted) and MERIT(value) minus the last letter | |
| 3 | Premier League prima donna? (4) |
| DIVA – the Premier League could be DIV(division) A | |
| 4 | Struggled with name for female nix (6) |
| NOUGHT – FOUGHT(struggled) with N(name) replacing F(female) | |
| 5 | Spring rolls and noodles for starters, then tucked into meat (6) |
| VERNAL – first letters of Rolls and Noodles inside VEAL(meat) | |
| 6 | Regularly measured many a golf shot … with these? (8) |
| YARDAGES – anagram of alternating letters in mEaSuReD mAnY, A and G(golf) | |
| 7 | Weeping willow’s top leaves grew given tips from expert (5) |
| GREET – remove the first letter of Willow from GREW, then the external letters of ExperT | |
| 8 | Bore? Drunken nuisance covers that (5) |
| ENNUI – hidden inside drunkEN NUIsance | |
| 9 | A man endlessly railing with withering comments on the sidelines? (10) |
| MARGINALIA – anagram of A, MAn minus the last letter, and RAILING | |
| 11 | Musical themes that accompany live broadcast capturing most of bird returning south (10) |
| LEITMOTIVS – anagram of LIVE containing TOMTIT(bird) minus the last letter reversed, then S(south) | |
| 16 | Indian plant after grinding can be tofu (8, two words) |
| BEAN CURD – URD(Indian plant) after an anagram of CAN BE | |
| 20 | Setter on slipping lead wags tail around chow (7) |
| ALIMENT – ME(setter) and ON minus the first letter inside an anagram of TAIL | |
| 21 | Rampant seed is unbeatable opponent (7) |
| NEMESIS – SEMEN(seed) reversed, then IS. Rampant(rearing) for reversed in a down clue comes up occasionally | |
| 23 | Besties say “soz” after some cutting texts (6) |
| ESSAYS – hidden inside bestiES SAY Soz. I believe this is the debut of “Besties” in a Times puzzle | |
| 24 | Newlyweds maybe left in carriage (6) |
| COUPLE – L(left) in COUPE(carriage) | |
| 25 | Fast Internet connection cut off in street (5) |
| SWIFT – WIFI(internet connection) minus the last letter inside ST(street) | |
| 26 | Ship worker with time off (5) |
| OILER – TOILER(worker) minus T(time) | |
| 29 | Voice next to lake making wild animal retreat (4) |
| LAIR – AIR(voice) beside L(lake) | |
Certainly the easiest Mephisto I’ve ever encountered (I am sure someone mentioned in comment on an earlier, daily blog that this one was unusually approachable, but it seems that comment has been removed…?). After the Thursday 15×15 with an unusual number of Mephisto-type words, it all balances out, with this Mephisto that plays like a regular daily transposed to a bar grid. Didn’t know MILIUM—and I wonder who did—but there had to be a ?ILIUM pimple of some sort.
I’ve seen the plural MILIA often. Might be more popular in the US, there’s an online channel called Dr. Pimple Popper where you can watch them ooze goo to your heart’s content.
OMG
Thank you to both setter and blogger.
17 ac. – side means bread because chapattis are served as a side dish to Indian meals?
Interesting, now I look at it SIDE is not explicitly in Chambers, though SIDE DISH is, and SIDE is a pretty common contraction of SIDE DISH in the USA.
Same in the UK.
I did this in under 20 minutes without once looking at Chambers, which has never happened to me before. I would have been substantially quicker if it hadn’t put in LEITMOTIFS with great confidence. I wasted ages trying and (unsurprisingly) failing to come up with something for 31ac before reconsidering.
I confess I prefer a bit more challenging obscurity in a Mephisto.
47:32
Only the second time I’ve pushed on through to the end of a Mephisto – this seemed easier to get into than usual giving plenty of crossers. Of course, there was plenty that I didn’t know or failed to fully parse, but very pleased to finish…