Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I found this one quite a step up in difficulty from the last few weeks. The classic horror movie was the William Castle cheesefest The Tingler, so it was a night of fun and smiles.
A reminder that in Mephisto puzzles definitions can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on the wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Staff needing energy and a lot of skill that’ll be raised for hunting (6) |
| MACHAN – MACE(staff) minus E(energy) and HAND(skill) minus the last letter | |
| 6 | You may see a scratch on one I injured with blade (6) |
| BALDIE – anagram of I and BLADE. A scratch-wig is one that covers only part of the head | |
| 11 | Succulent leather left out in local running water (9) |
| ECHEVERIA – CHEVERIL leather minus L(left) inside EA(local running water) | |
| 12 | With element of guesswork Mastermind champion avoided a pass (4) |
| GHAT – first letter of Guessword, then HATCH(mastermind an idea) minus CH(champion) | |
| 13 | McDonald’s call for cows to be fed with special millet (5) |
| PROSO – PROO(call for cows) containing S(special) | |
| 14 | Flipping idiot with silly hat in accident (9) |
| HIT-AND-RUN – NURD(idiot, variant spelling of NERD) with an anagram of HAT,IN | |
| 15 | Fenced with stakes increased against foremost of foes (7) |
| FRAISED – RAISED(increased) next to the first letter of Foes | |
| 18 | Drop off case of finest beverage (5) |
| LASSI – remove the external letters of CLASSIC(finest) | |
| 21 | Matchstick drawing’s suggestion of people in masses needing finishing touch from Lowry? (6) |
| PINMAN – first letter of People, then IN, MANY(masses) minus the last letter in lowrY. Referring to the paintings of L.S. Lowry, immortalized in the Status Quo classic Pictures of Matchstick Men | |
| 22 | Road tax run out? Ring it in start of month (6) |
| OCTROI – RO(run out in cricket) surrounded by OCT 1 (start of month) | |
| 23 | Wolf’s growling tailed off at the end (5) |
| SNARF – SNARL(growling) without the last letter, then the last letter of ofF. Wolf meaning to eat quickly here. | |
| 25 | Are leaving manacle I fixed about shin? (7) |
| CNEMIAL – remove A(are) from an anagram of MANACLE,I | |
| 28 | Scrubbing stone from start is overparticular of craftsman (9) |
| ARTISANAL – remove ST(stone) from START, then IS, ANAL(overparticular) | |
| 29 | Naughtily I’ve left back of nighty see-through (5) |
| VEILY – anagram of I’VE, then L(left) and the last letter of nightY | |
| 30 | Must walk stiffly and heavily not quietly (4) |
| STUM – STUMP(walk heavily) minus P(quietly) | |
| 31 | Turn and leave after jarring old wound (9) |
| VULNERATE – anagram of TURN and LEAVE | |
| 32 | 10 put a Republican in nick once (6) |
| DENARY – A, R(republican) inside DENY(second definition of nick in Chambers) | |
| 33 | US backing is about right after tense trouble in Israel? (6) |
| TSURIS – US reversed, and IS surrounding R(right) after T(tense) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Reflecting a lettuce? Truss L in exquisite failure (8) |
| MEGAFLOP – A GEM lettuce, all reversed, then L inside FOP(exquisite – as a noun exquisite can mean a dandy). Gem lettuce is not in my Chambers, but at my local supermarket you can buy it in a little plastic container for about three times the cost of regular romaine | |
| 2 | Spicy pickle ace with fish … (5) |
| ACHAR – A(ace) and CHAR(fish) | |
| 3 | … a lot of it with a pinch of nutmeg, one gram (5) |
| CHANA – a lot of CHAr from the previous clue, then the first letter of Nutmeg and A. Gram is a pulse or chickpea | |
| 4 | I so messed up in aircraft tax fiddle (8) |
| AVOISION – anagram of I,SO inside AVION(aircraft). I saw this word and figure it must sound like how the Three Stooges would say “aversion” | |
| 5 | Recently amended one account implicating Blair perhaps (12) |
| NEOTERICALLY – anagram of ONE, then TALLY(account) containing ERIC Blair, better known as George Orwell | |
| 6 | Commodore’s standard old stipend returned in probe and about time (12, two words) |
| BROAD PENNANT – ANN(old stipend, found under ANNATES in Chambers) reversed inside an anagram of PROBE,AND, then T(time) | |
| 7 | Overweight partner of Laurel beginning to leave for hospital (5) |
| LARDY – HARDY(Stan Laurel’s partner) with the first letter of Leave replacing H(hospital) | |
| 8 | Battered radio with AM is a museum piece (7) |
| DIORAMA – anagram of RADIO and AM | |
| 9 | Closed vandalised urinals (7) |
| INSULAR – anagram of URINALS | |
| 10 | Senior beefeater lying about not once eating beef? (4) |
| EXON – NE(not) containing OX(beef), all reversed | |
| 16 | Sides ordered with main harboured complaints (8) |
| DISEASES – anagram of SIDES containing SEA(main) reversed | |
| 17 | Angers in France decries dumping barrels (8) |
| INFLAMES – IN, F(France), then BLAMES(decries) minus B(barrels) | |
| 19 | Athletic clubs on Greek island grow together (7) |
| ACCRETE – AC(Athletic Clubs), on CRETE(Greek island) | |
| 20 | Waterloo? It’s not ABBA’s first hit (7) |
| STATION – anagram of IT’S, NOT and the first letter of Abba | |
| 24 | Woods is in lake, value at three under par (5) |
| SILVA – I think the wordplay here is ‘S(is), I(in), L(lake) then VAlue missing three letters. I’m open to other suggestions, I don’t think there’s an albatross involved | |
| 26 | Content to shoplift a ready meal to break fast (5) |
| IFTAR – hidden inside shoplIFT A Ready | |
| 27 | I pull back following Australian rodent (5) |
| AGUTI – I and TUG(pull) all reversed after A(Australian) | |
| 28 | Greedy guts to have fish (4) |
| AVID – internal letters of hAVe, ID(fish) | |
I’m not sure that Israel is the place for TSURIS, ‘tsuris’ being a Yiddish word and Yiddish being traditionally looked on with contempt (the language of victims) by the Hebrew-speaking Israelis.
Toda raba! I didn’t finish this one, and seeing this answer I thought it’s one I should have gotten. This might be a better excuse for missing it than my being distracted by the surface’s echoes of current events and wanting to answer “No” to the question apparently posed.
Two errors this week, with SCARF (not sure what I thought the word for ‘growling’ was: SCARY perhaps?) and ENFLAMES, where I think ‘France’ leaked into my word for ‘in’.
Yes definitely rather tricky. I had to come here to see how BALDIE, DENARY and SILVA worked. Thanks Robert adn George.