Greetings barred-grid fans.
I enjoyed this challenge, as to be expected from Tim Moorey some quirky but exact wordplay. Completed over two short stints later in the day, I was not able to do my usual Sunday morning coffee solve, but I will be back to that tomorrow.
In Mephisto puzzles, definitions can be confirmed in Chambers, and I have underlined the one that was the most direct to me. I will focus on wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Famous actor keeping to part that’s not moving (6) |
| STATOR – STAR(famous actor) containing TO | |
| 5 | Is lamb, say first for hotpot or duck? (6) |
| SMEATH – ‘S(is), MEAT(lamb, say) and the first letter in Hotpot | |
| 9 | Deprived of love, abandoned to huge trauma? David Copperfield perhaps (11) |
| THAUMATURGE – anagram of TO,HUGE,TRAUMA minus O(love). Reference to the Las Vegas magician, and a reminder that living people can feature in Mephisto | |
| 11 | Investment authority once last to encompass very small change overseas (8) |
| PIASTRES – PIA(Personal Investment Authority, now defunct), the last letter of encompasS and TRES(very) | |
| 12 | Shoot nameless dog for the chase (5) |
| BRACH – BRANCH(shoot) mins N(name) | |
| 13 | Fanciful birds not extinct seen on arms regularly (6) |
| LIVERS – LIVE(not extinct) and alternating letters in aRmS | |
| 14 | Fruit, one best when on the turn (6) |
| SAPOTA – A(one), TOP(best), AS(when) all reversed | |
| 17 | Disguised mafioso foremost in chartering tourist boats in Italy (9) |
| MOTOSCAFI – anagram of MAFIOSO and the first letters of Chattering Tourist. Found in Chambers under MOTOSCAFO | |
| 18 | Found US short on segments of animal (9) |
| METAMERIC – MET(found) and AMERICA(US) minus the last letter | |
| 22 | Rowing about cutting oil seal (6) |
| OARING – A(about) inside O-RING(oil seal) | |
| 23 | The old soldiers leading one Middle Easterner (6) |
| YEMENI – YE(the, old), MEN(soldiers) and I(one) | |
| 24 | Consulting about current American offshoots (5) |
| CIONS – CONS(consulting) surrounding I(current) | |
| 26 | Reclusive Italian seen behind lake in retreat (8) |
| EREMITAL – ITAL(Italian) after MERE(lake) reversed | |
| 27 | Club selling mean and glossy works of art (11) |
| ENAMELLINGS – anagram of SELLING,MEAN | |
| 28 | Time bit of durra cropped (6) |
| SITHED – SITHE(time) and the first letter of Durra | |
| 29 | Levy on outside broadcast making you think a lot (6) |
| OBSESS – SESS(levy) next to OB(outside broadcast) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Keep tenor in reserve for last piece (4) |
| STUB – T(tenor) inside SUB(reserve) | |
| 2 | Body parts cut in short supply (8) |
| THORAXES – AXE(cut) in an anagram of SHORT | |
| 3 | Act includes comedy accepted in foreign language (8) |
| TURCOMAN – TURN(act) containing COM(comedy), A(accepted) | |
| 4 | Chopped Indian dish indeed served up inside for peasant (6) |
| RAIYAT – RAITA(Indian dish) minus the last letter with AY(indeed) reversed inside | |
| 5 | Idler coming from very absorbing chat (6) |
| STALKO – SO(very) containing TALK(chat) | |
| 6 | Stadium publicity put out about gap in fence (5) |
| MUSIT – anagram of STADIUM minus AD(publicity) | |
| 7 | Assembling a mass of separate things not good for exam (10) |
| AGREGATION – AGGREGATION(assembling a mass of separate things) minus G(good) | |
| 8 | Endless mess on pass is troubling (8) |
| HASSLING – HASH(mess) minus the last letter on SLING(pass) | |
| 10 | Massage one attempts Sweden exported? (10) |
| TAPOTEMENT – anagram of ONE,ATTEMPTS minus S(Sweden) | |
| 14 | Dogs barking some days (8) |
| SAMOYEDS – anagram of SOME,DAYS | |
| 15 | Getting rid of waste a big problem for Brussels once (8) |
| ECCRISIS – the big problem for Brussels would be an EC CRISIS | |
| 16 | Brass once used by Beethoven and Brahms making their mark (8) |
| PFENNIGS – this may be a CD, though I’m not used to seeing cryptic definitions in Mephisto, so I’m going to hazard that there is a secondary definition that a pfennig is 1/100 of a mark | |
| 19 | Left energised after Cuba recalled (6) |
| EXITED – EXCITED(energised) minus C(cuba) | |
| 20 | Nick often short of time for fish (6) |
| ROBALO – ROB(nick) then A LOT(often) mins T(time) | |
| 21 | The Japanese film a French city with no end of remains (5) |
| ANIME – A, NIMES(French city) minus the last letter of remainS | |
| 25 | Heavy fall, tons shifted from side of hill facing glacier (4) |
| SOSS – REMOVE T(tons) from STOSS(side of hill facing glacier) | |
I finished, but I could not find sithe = time in any dictionary. It can be a clipped form of sithen, meaning since the time of, but it does not seem to mean time by itself. Fortunately, sithed is the obvious answer.
I didn’t think this was too difficult, since there were a lot of common words to get started.
It’s in Chambers.
George: Homer was nodding at 27a. I’ll leave it to you to look at and think, “How on earth did I manage to do that?”
And I also took MARK to refer to the former German currency.
Usual precision and wit from Tim, though a disappointing lack of smut and bodily functions, by his standards.
SITHE is an alternative spelling under SITH in Chambers, which might be why you missed it.
George you don’t need to hazard anything about secondary definitions: the primary (only) definition of PFENNIG in Chambers specifies that it’s ‘1/100 of a mark’.
A full hour toughie. I think my first in was SAMOYED, known because of the unforgettable fact that it means “eats itself” in Russian. Like others, I was bemused by SITHED because both the alternative to scythed and the time thing took some finding even in Magic Chambers.
An odd experience – after ten minutes I only had YEMENI (escaped from the Quickie) and SAMOYEDS and no idea about anything else. Then LIVERS swam (flew?) into view and suddenly the wavelength kicked in and it all seemed fairly straightforward. Strange how the mind works.