Greetings, barred-grid fans.
Another Mephisto I solved during commercial breaks in last week’s classic horror movie, which was Scream, Blacula, Scream (a rather silly but enjoyable sequel to the original Blacula). Tim Moorey brought back one of my favorite wordplay elements of his puzzles, the answer were two words both lose a final letter.
Not too difficult and a lot of fun – how did you get along?
A reminder that in Mephisto puzzles definitions can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Love to get on lake shortly with pole to catch a fish (7) |
| OOLAKAN – O(love), O(on) then LAKE missing the last letter, and N(pole) containing A | |
| 6 | Enthusiasm from travel around America? Tons (5) |
| GUSTO – GO(travel) surrounding US(America) and T(tons) | |
| 10 | Advance for Ayrshire milking facility (4) |
| LOAN – double definition | |
| 11 | Ballgame manoeuvre seen with hoops out of bounds behind back street? (8) |
| ALLEY-OOP – hOOPs without the external letters after ALLEY(back street) | |
| 12 | Ass almost changed direction in cobbled adit (9) |
| DZIGGETAI – ZIGGED(changed direction) minus the last letter inside an anagram of ADIT | |
| 15 | Rented right away and passed quickly over (4) |
| HIED – HIRED(rented) minus R(right) | |
| 16 | Ravel a little hard with tabor beating (6) |
| ATHROB – anagram of H(hard) and TABOR | |
| 17 | Book test in old accommodation (6) |
| HOSTRY – HOS(the book of Hosea), TRY(test) | |
| 18 | Row in shady ground for showy plants? (10) |
| HYDRANGEAS – RANGE(row) inside an anagram of SHADY | |
| 20 | A trick absorbed by commoner with craft of an old Greek (10) |
| TRIACONTER – A, CON(trick) inside TRITER(commoner) | |
| 24 | I sat out during gym being this? (6, two words) |
| PAST IT – anagram of I,SAT inside PT(gym) | |
| 25 | Unchanged fare tails off for Chinese outfit (6) |
| SAMFOO – SAME(unchanged), FOOD(fare) minus the last letters | |
| 26 | Moderation in pub produces expression of contempt (4) |
| PHOH – HO(moderation) inside PH(pub) | |
| 29 | Officers and workers following drill perhaps (9) |
| SERGEANTS – ANTS(workers) after SERGE(drill, twilled fabric) | |
| 30 | Criticises clips reviewed in quick dialogue (8) |
| SNIP-SNAP – PANS(criticises), PINS(clips) all reversed | |
| 31 | The sea bass has been dropped outside once (4) |
| RINE – BRINE(the sea) minus B(bass) | |
| 32 | Underwear and braces for guys (5) |
| STAYS – three definitions | |
| 33 | Tormenter is gross and rather wicked (7) |
| GRILLER – GR(gross) and ILLER(rather wicked) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Lost lad at sea? Get navy veteran! (7, two words) |
| OLD SALT -anagram of LOST,LAD | |
| 2 | Play at Headingley remained, Knight replacing Nasser initially (4) |
| LAIK – LAIN(remained), with K(knight) replacing the first letter of Nasser. For those unfamiliar with English cricket, Nick Knight and Nasser Hussain are both retired cricketers. They played together for both Essex and England. Found in Chambers under LAKE | |
| 3 | Enraged about a right to seize and use property (6) |
| ANGARY – ANGRY(enraged) surrounding A | |
| 4 | Litter in Japan leads to Kyoto authority giving orders (4) |
| KAGO – first letters of Kyoto Authority Giving Orders | |
| 5 | Matlo Herb afloat is salt of wisdom! (9) |
| ALEMBROTH – anagram of MATLO,HERB | |
| 6 | Once rare, ground’s good for runs (6) |
| GEASON – REASON(ground) with G(good) replacing R(runs) | |
| 7 | Put an end to postie being mistreated (6) |
| SOPITE – anagram of POSTIE | |
| 8 | Orator let off becoming a bearer (9) |
| TOLERATOR – anagram of ORATOR,LET | |
| 9 | No Conservative managed article in the Sunday Times? (4) |
| OP-ED – remove C(conservative) from COPED(managed) | |
| 13 | Lawyer’s briefly right behind drawing (9) |
| ATTRAHENT – ATT(attorney, lawyer, briefly), R(right), AHENT(behind) | |
| 14 | Tough once managership changes, see me get dropped (9) |
| PHANSIGAR – anagram of MANAGERSHIP minus ME | |
| 19 | Small employer saving money order for Durban pedlar (7) |
| SMOUSER – S(small), USER(employer) containing MO(money order) | |
| 21 | A feast assists one worked up about nothing (6) |
| ISODIA – AIDS(assists), I(one) reversed surrounding O(nothing) | |
| 22 | Quotes succeeded with lady about town (6) |
| CITESS – CITES(quotes), S(succeeded) | |
| 23 | Talk over peer defending commoner (6) |
| EMPARL – EARL(peer) surrounding MP(member of the house of commons) | |
| 26 | Face a hare in hunting (4) |
| PUSS – double definition | |
| 27 | Military headgear very good? Not half, very good! (4) |
| KEPI – KEEN(very good) minus the second half, then PI(very good) | |
| 28 | Indian fellow’s old womanish and short of energy (4) |
| ANIL – ANILE(old womanish) minus E(energy). The Anil I’m most familiar with is the Indian spinner Anil Kumble | |
I didn’t find this too bad, but I struggled a little with dziggetai. On the other hand, I’m starting to remember samfoo and oolakan. i also know the two military hats, the kepi and the topi, so it had to be one of them. My FOI was actually alley-oop, which is very simple if you know the expression.
I didn’t find this too bad either. Solved in one sitting with no parsing queries this time. Though, I glossed over the reference to Headingly knowing that “laking it” is a northern expression for playing around or playing truant. Hence laik = play.
Can’t work out how
Ho=moderation
Neither can I, but it’s in Chambers as such.
Is it a physics term?
No. It’s given alongside ‘cessation’ as a noun, and related to the verbal meaning, to stop.
Chambers refers us to Old Norse hō, and Dictionary.com says hō is related to “Whoa!”
Added quite a few to my stock of words I’ll never need again, though I’ll claim OOLAKAN went straight in, even though Chambers lists no fewer than 7 spelling variations. 50 minutes, so a tad above normal difficulty.