Greetings, barred-grid fans!
I don’t remember having too much difficulty with this puzzle, but there were plenty of smiles to be had, as I was familiar with a few of the odder entries, particularly the first one.
In Mephisto puzzles, definitions can be confirmed in Chambers (and I have underlined the one that I found the most direct in getting the answer), so I will focus on wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 3 | Shake tops from empty libations, eg Harp on … this? (10) |
| LAGERPHONE – anagram of the first letters of Empty, Libations and EG,HARP,ON. I can vouch that this is a thing, I made and rattled a few of them in my misspent youth in Victoria. | |
| 10 | Warp drive follows starship’s initial acceleration (8) |
| SAPROPEL – PROPEL(drive) after the first letter of Starship and A(acceleration). A bit of a deep dive in Chambers, WARP can mean alluvial sediment | |
| 12 | Break down, start to cry and shake (5) |
| CROCK – first letter of Cry, then ROCK(shake) | |
| 13 | Staff cleared out garage round back of the equestrian centre (6) |
| MANEGE – MAN(staff) then the outer letters of GaragE surrounding the last letter of thE | |
| 14 | Blue Peter pet missing quickly returned (6) |
| EROTIC – PETER minus PET, then CITO(quickly) reversed | |
| 15 | Sturdy footwear that’s used to spur horse on (6) |
| GIDDAP – GID(sturdy, the sheep disease), then DAP(plimsoll, footwear). DAP was still in my mind from a recent appearance in the daily puzzle | |
| 16 | Perhaps US mole turns moderate about United Nations (8) |
| TUNNELER – reverse of RELENT(moderate) surrounding UN(United Nations) | |
| 17 | What’s caught by spectator — captain’s armband? (4) |
| TORC – hidden inside spectaTOR Captain’s | |
| 18 | Jacket to go round chest (6) |
| PARKEE – PEE(to go) surrounding ARK(chest) | |
| 20 | A name that’s English — Tom, Dick or Harry? (6) |
| ANYONE – A, N(name), YON(that) with(‘s, has) E(English) | |
| 22 | Smack daughter not son for hoaxes (4) |
| KIDS -KISS(smack) containing D(daughter) for one S(son) | |
| 23 | One’s careful taking runs forward (8) |
| IMPUDENT – I’M(one’s) PRUDENT(careful) minus R(runs) | |
| 26 | One’s tern on flying from extremes (6) |
| NESTER – remove the outer letters from oNE’S TERn | |
| 28 | Bunny boiler finally leaves Peter out — it’s over (6) |
| TAPETI – remove the last letter of boileR from TAPER(peter out), then IT reversed | |
| 29 | Grease once regularly engaged Rydell High (6) |
| ENLARD – anagram of alternating letters in eNgAgEd RyDeLl | |
| 30 | This month heralds a moon that’s an oddity (5) |
| CURIO – CUR(current, this month), and the moon IO | |
| 31 | Taking a wee little dram finally seeing off day in a manner of speaking (8) |
| EMICTION – last letters of littlE, draM then remove D(day) from DICTION(a manner of speaking) | |
| 32 | Transubstantiationalist damages an art piece (10) |
| CAPERNAITE – anagram of AN,ART,PIECE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Determined to elevate sports ground in area that’s sullied (11) |
| ASCERTAINED – reversal of REC(sports ground) inside A(area) and STAINED(sullied) | |
| 2 | Vulture’s target arranged by US offshoot coming round (7) |
| CARRION – ARR(arranged by) surrounded by CION(US version of SCION, offshoot) | |
| 3 | Northern city briefly in league with Bath (5) |
| LPOOL – L(league) and POOL(bath). This is in Chambers! | |
| 4 | Rig bottling cloudy bitter (6) |
| ARCTIC – ARTIC(truck, rig) containing C(cloudy) | |
| 5 | Gourmet to choose trimmed, aged ox after starter of escargot … (7) |
| EPICURE – PICK(choose) minus the last letter, and URE(ox) after the first letter in Escargot | |
| 6 | … one who previously had beef and leghorn perhaps with bread stuffing (8) |
| PLAINANT – PLAIT(leghorn) with NAN bread inside. I only knew the poultry definition of leghorn, but the plait comes first in Chambers | |
| 7 | How to make her blow on pud? (6) |
| HANDER – you can make her with H AND ER. Well played, Robert Teuton, as pud had another meaning in Australia in the 70s (not found in Chambers) that makes this clue particularly ribald. | |
| 8 | Due to marry having time away (4) |
| OWED – TO WED(marry) minus T(time) | |
| 9 | New Age posturing about us dismissing small trifles (5) |
| NUGAE – N(new) then an anagram of AGE surrounding US minus S(small) | |
| 11 | I’m taking leave of senses after case of dire blues (11) |
| DEPRESSIONS – remove I’M from IMPRESSIONS(senses) after the external letters of DirE | |
| 16 | Gentler introduction to rugby after having entered ground (8) |
| TENDERER – first letter of Rugby inside an anagram of ENTERED | |
| 18 | Astrophel: note mine is lacking in vitamin B1 (7) |
| PENTHIA – PEN(write, note), then remove MINE from THIAMINE(Vitamin B1) | |
| 19 | Version of book, one I scribbled cribbing E Morse style (7) |
| EDITION – anagram of ONE,I containing DIT(in Morse code, E is one dit) | |
| 21 | Power cut to last longer? (6) |
| OUTAGE – if you last longer you OUT-AGE | |
| 22 | Golf shot past Ford model that’s conked out (6) |
| KAPUTT – PUTT(golf shot) after a Ford KA | |
| 24 | Chins drop from Newcastle team struggling (5) |
| MENTA – anagram of the first letter of Newcastle and TEAM | |
| 25 | Frightening female quits theatrical extravaganza (5) |
| EERIE – remove F(female) from FEERIE(theatrical extravaganza). Fortunately FEERIE has come up recently. | |
| 27 | Slide beer on the counter (4) |
| SLIP – PILS(beer) reversed | |
20A: Strictly, “yon” just means “that”, and ’s = “has” is indicating that (A N YON) has E next to it.
ta – will amend
I was not successful, as I carelessly biffed hinded early on and never went back to it. I did enjoy the lagerphone – I suppose it makes a good alternative to the didgeridoo. There were a few I couldn’t parse, but the answers were completely obvious, as the vocabulary was rather simple for a Mephisto.
One oversight: 13a, it’s the last letter of THE – as you obviously knew, since you had EQUESTRIAN as part of the definition.