I didn’t find this one particularly difficult, but since I was rather tired I quit for the evening with a couple unsolved. I finished them off in the morning.
There are a high proportion of common words in this puzzle, some with misleading literals. However, generally speaking, this is among the more approachable Mephistos. Most of the regular crew probably found it pretty easy.
| Across | |
| 1 | Charlie’s academic wedge (6) |
| DONKEY – DON + KEY. Wedge is about the 20th definition of key, but it’s there. | |
| 6 | Top stop working on the back of incomplete pretext (6) |
| HOODIE – HOO[k] + DIE. The slang meaning of hook as a pretense is buried deep in the list of definitions. | |
| 11 | King where humour supplants second to last wife’s harassment? (10) |
| HENPECKERY – HEN(-r,+PECKER)Y. It is somewhat hard to picture Henry VIII being henpecked by his 5th wife! | |
| 12 | In money and over being engulfed by worriment (7) |
| AMONGST – A(M,O)NGST. | |
| 14 | Perhaps centurion’s life admitted small prospect (5) |
| VISTA – VI(S)TA. A centurion because he presumably spoke Latin. | |
| 15 | Fish in local river filling time of day for some (6, two words) |
| SEA EEL – S(EA)EEL. OE sael could mean either happiness or time, and its northern descendant means time of day. | |
| 16 | With first couple dismissed wind up the batter’s irritability (4) |
| EDGE – [sl]EDGE, cricket slang. | |
| 17 | Welcoming gift of flowers close to safe space (7) |
| LEISURE – LEI + SURE. | |
| 20 | Mob speaker’s failure to contain upper-class hunt shifting (8) |
| DOUGHNUT – DO(U)G + anagram of HUNT. D | |
| 22 | Against English in metropolis displaying vanity of some (8) |
| CONCEITY – CON + C(E)ITY. | |
| 25 | Alternatively it’s read “en cavalier” (7) |
| ASTRIDE – Anagram of IT’S READ. | |
| 27 | Indeed archaic term for Virgin Mother (4) |
| YEAN – YEA + [virgi]N, with mother as a verb, to give birth to a sheep. I biffed this, but had trouble parsing. | |
| 28 | Choice cut from kid with attention (6) |
| RIBEYE – RIB + EYE. | |
| 30 | Chairman getting stopped by, well, boring Yank (5) |
| SCHMO – S(CHM)O. | |
| 31 | Robust ethics reset bearing synod’s focus (7) |
| STHENIC – Anagram of ETHICS containing [sy]N[od]. | |
| 32 | Inquisitive about short leave being stacked? (10) |
| CURVACIOUS – CU(VAC)IOUS. | |
| 33 | Psychological difficulty? Finish what’s to be put on (6) |
| ADDEND – A.D.D. + END. | |
| 34 | Safe bet where chaps will stand for right union (6) |
| CEMENT – CE(-r,+MEN)T. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | What’s done about alternative vote being broken for Scots (6) |
| DEAVED – DE(A.V.)ED. | |
| 2 | Sir’s mood is sadly the cause of a stink (10) |
| OSMIDROSIS – Anagram of SIR’S MOOD IS. | |
| 3 | Silk departs being moved along Crinan Canal, say (6) |
| KENTED – KENTE + D. I never knew that kente cloth is silk, but apparently it is. | |
| 4 | English are about close to defeated so prepare for attack (7, two words) |
| EN GARDE – ENG + AR(D)E. | |
| 5 | You must treat oily dips like a character of Greeks (8) |
| YPSILOID – Anagram of OILY DRIPS. | |
| 7 | How Scots show regret over European line to be toed (4) |
| OCHE – OCH! + E. | |
| 8 | Vegetables? Good with fish served up (5) |
| OKRAS – OK + SAR upside-down. I had okrah, since a har is also a fish, but it didn’t work out. | |
| 9 | Lunch before game in Grenoble filling new-found need (7) |
| DEJEUNE – DE(JEU)NE, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of NEED. | |
| 10 | Ottoman province is indeed looking up with grant (6) |
| EYALET – AYE upside-down + LET. | |
| 13 | See intention by a decoy lifting name of St Albans (10) |
| VERULAMIAN – V + AIM, A LURE upside-down + N. Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Visconte St Albans. | |
| 18 | Most easily melted sleuth in the grip of wanton cutie (8) |
| EUTECTIC – EU(TEC)TIC, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of CUTIE. | |
| 19 | About New Testament sentence one wings it (7) |
| ANTBIRD – A + NT + BIRD, standard cryptic crossword components. | |
| 21 | Pump up, Jeez, boring grammar school weed (7, two words) |
| GYMSHOE – G(MY upside-down)S + HOE. | |
| 22 | Bearers of fruit formed by cold air round Cape (6) |
| CARICA – C + ARI(C)A. Not air literally, but an air performed by an opera star. | |
| 23 | Somehow my clue shows where peripatetics ponder (6) |
| LYCEUM – Anagram of MY CLUE. | |
| 24 | Who’s against charging old tax for tracked vehicle? (6) |
| SNOCAT – S(NO)CAT. Scat root number 5, an old tax in the Orkney Islands. | |
| 26 | Retired steward on the night before an event (5) |
| REEVE – RE EVE. | |
| 29 | Eastern bread — you must bin old one (4) |
| YUAN – Y[o]U + AN. | |
Thank you for the blog. I couldn’t parse 22d CARICA. I kept trying to fit “AIR” into it. But I can see now clearly in Chambers: “Aria – an air or melody…”
I thought the indicators for Scottish words were done nicely. The surfaces for 1d and 7d both read like political headlines/commentary. And I loved 3d “along Crinan Canal” – very Para Handy!
Not too tricky but very fun! Luck of the draw but it seems EYLAET has shown up in a lot of puzzles recently.
Was the top line pun really Don Quixote?
Annoyingly I mistranscribed OCHE when submitting.