Greetings, barred-grid fans.
This is a puzzle of two halves. Most of the entries were on the easier side, and I thought I was in for a very quick solve indeed, but there’s a handful of the clues that really required some head-scratching, and the full explanation takes you to weird and wonderful places in the big red book. I hope I have it all sorted out.
A reminder that definitions can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on wordplay here. If you don’t agree with a definition, check Chambers, chances are it will not agree with you.
| Across | |
| 1 | Barking canine hassling boxer’s vulnerability (9, two words) |
| GLASSCHIN – anagram of C(canine, in dentistry) and HASSLING | |
| 11 | Spotted animal can briefly turn docile after scratching flanks (6) |
| CALICO – CAn missing the last letter, then dOCILe reversed after removing the external letters | |
| 13 | Resources low indeed! (5) |
| MOOLA – MOO(low), LA(indeed) | |
| 14 | Avatar perhaps ranks No 1 in Hollywood I suspect (7) |
| KRISHNA – anagram of RANKS, the first letter in Hollywood and I | |
| 15 | Public notices hint of hesitation here (5) |
| ADSUM – ADS(public notices), UM(hint of hesitation) | |
| 17 | Mock almost completed — with Q 17 what’s 16, 4×4? (4) |
| JEEP – JEEr(mock) minus the last letter. Where does the P come from? If you begin the clue with the characters 1 and 7, the 16th character is P (I’ve put it in red). I think this was the intention, but I’m open to other suggestions. Of course, P is the 16th letter of the alphabet. Why make it easy (thanks Guy de Sable for taking about 5 minutes to put me in my place)? | |
| 18 | What’s essential to indulge with grand afternoon meal? (6) |
| GATEAU – the middle letter of indUlge, with G(grand), A(afternoon) and TEA(meal) | |
| 19 | Meagre sputtering summer period? (6) |
| JEJUNE – Another one where the wordplay has me at a crossroads. I think it is meant to be how JUNE(summer period) would sound with a stammer… JE-JUNE. It could also be an all-in-one where the sputtering is a JET missing the last letter and the summer period is still JUNE. Or am I missing something else entirely? | |
| 20 | Cryptic games isn’t it for such? (11) |
| ENIGMATISTS – anagram of GAMES,ISN’T,IT | |
| 22 | Icy terrain? Throw in grit then slippery character’s receding (11, three words) |
| STOSS AND LEE – TOSS(throw) inside SAND(grit), then EEL(slippery character) reversed | |
| 26 | Strategy switching first two pieces in Xs and Os? (6) |
| TACTIC – in the USA, X’s and O’s is TIC-TAC-TO, so take the first two sections and swap their order | |
| 27 | Me? I’d unwind with an occasional Scotch (6) |
| DAIMEN – anagram of ME,I’D and AN. Fun clue, and cheers to that (more of a bourbon or rum person though) | |
| 30 | International corporation backing traditional medicine in SA (4) |
| MUTI – I(internationa), TUM(corporation) all reversed | |
| 32 | Holiday company boarding European with small cases (5) |
| ETUIS – Got this one from the definition – I had not heard of TUI who appear to be a package holiday company. Put them inside E(European) and S(small) | |
| 33 | Turning right nearly miss glimpse of Santa’s sleigh (7) |
| TRAVOIS – RT(right) reversed, then AVOId(miss) minus the last letter, finally the first letter of Santa. | |
| 34 | River dweller’s fate after returning home (5) |
| NILOT – LOT(fate) after IN(home) reversed | |
| 35 | Such fruitfulness takes pressure off teens? (6) |
| UBERTY – remove P(pressure) from PUBERTY(teens) | |
| 36 | Mature woman removing half of wine jugs (9) |
| MAMMARIES – MAMMA(mature woman) and half of RIESling(wine) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Ghost once seen in cellar vault (5) |
| LARVA – hidden inside celLAR VAult | |
| 3 | Tabloids regularly featuring it? (5, two words) |
| ALIST – alternating letters in tAbLoIdS, then ‘T(it) | |
| 4 | Family member lives in outskirts of St Louis (4) |
| SISS – IS(lives) inside the external letters of St louiS | |
| 5 | Grass on school truant (6) |
| SCHWAG – SCH(school), WAG(truant) | |
| 6 | Resistance about amount wasted on urban area (11) |
| CONTUMACITY – C(about), then an anagram of AMOUNT, CITY(urban area) | |
| 7 | Traveller’s inn, the very thing to stall horse (6) |
| IMARET – IT(the very thing) containing MARE(horse) | |
| 8 | Chambers English work affected person (7) |
| POSEUSE – POS(chambers), E(English), USE(work) | |
| 9 | Solvent removing all traces of faeces in sewage outflow (6) |
| ELUENT – remove both F’s(first letter of Faeces) from EFFLUENT(sewage outflow) | |
| 10 | Companies dealt with peasant farmer (9) |
| CAMPESINO – anagram of COMPANIES | |
| 12 | Self-important official to criticise judge plus a suspect (11) |
| PANJANDARUM – PAN(criticise), J(judge), AND(plus), A, RUM(suspect) | |
| 16 | Caring and feeding of cattle is leaving 20 suffering (9) |
| AGISTMENT – anagram of ENIGMATISTS(the answer to 20) minus IS. What is the chance that both puzzles I blog this week use this device! | |
| 21 | Returning on court with rubber bat (7) |
| NOCTULE – ON reversed, then CT(court) and ULE(rubber) | |
| 23 | Wick’s tangled tight in tip of taper (6) |
| TAUTIT – TAUT(tight), I(in) and the first letter of Taper. Wick is referring to Scotland here | |
| 24 | Nap from a tipster is failing, not getting trip unfortunately (6) |
| SIESTA – anagram of A TIPSTER IS minus TRIP | |
| 25 | Tope and traipse around to a degree … (6) |
| DAGABA – GAD(traipse) reversed, then A, BA(Bachelor of Arts, degree) | |
| 28 | … I idly walk about like an aborigine (5) |
| MAORI – I, ROAM(idly walk) all reversed. Are these two clues meant to come together and form a couplet? | |
| 29 | Cream cake’s last thing that’s good for slimmers (5) |
| ELITE – last letter of cakE, then LITE(good for slimmers) | |
| 31 | Vacuum clearing house throughout (4) |
| OVER – HOOVER(vacuum) minus HO(house) | |
Q is the 17th letter in the alphabet, and P is 16th (it’s only 14th in the clue actually—unless you’re counting spaces). My LOI, from just the definition at first (after correcting my ELUANT).
I had this all worked and understood, except all the parsing for TAUTIT; I don’t find “I” as an abbreviation for “in” in Chambers, though I fully expected to.
Used the Search function in Chambers a good deal, after the easier ones were out of the way!
Can’t see any reason for apparently joining those two clues, except to be mysterious.
As far as I can tell from the notes, your explanation for 17A is the right one. (And what I thought when solving.)
For “in”, you need to look up i’ rather than just i or I
Oh—o’ course!
Like the poor cat i’ the adage.
I solved this Mephisto in one Saturday-night session, with a fair amount of biffing. Easy ones like contumacity, panjandarum, uberty, and gateau made it easy to get started. Of course, a few holdouts had to be hunted down in Chambers, and I nearly went to bed instead of finishing.
Doesn’t look good for tonight, it’s already 10:30! I’d better get cracking, since it’s my blog next week.
I thought we were in the same time zone, but it’s just 9 here…
Yes, it turned out to be 8:30, not 10:30 – I’m sitting at the computer without wearing reading glasses, glancing at the tiny clock at the bottom of the screen.
I did nearly finish – I’ll have to clean up the last six answers tomorrow.
This hit the right level, with some nice clues. This aged schoolboy especially liked MAMMARIES.
‘A daimen icker in a thrave’s a sma’ request ….’
Yes indeed – a Two-Ronnyesque clue
I enjoyed JEEP and JEJUNE – fun wordplay.
I wasn’t completely sure about I’d understood 36ac properly (the “mature woman” = “mamma” part), so thanks for the confirmation about that.
Thanks for explanation of 23dn – I had the construction by failed to recognise the significance of Wick.
Late to comment this week, but I particularly enjoyed the device in 17ac so I thought I’d pop in to be smug because George didn’t spot it 😉
My comeuppance is immediate because I have DAIMAN/ALITE, which I would like to think is a typo but am by no means sure.
having briefly looked at Mephisto on a Sunday every now and again, and occasionally being able to do a clue or two. I decided to give it a proper effort this week and was eventually able to finish with a LOT of help from Chambers. I’m assuming that this is ‘allowed’ judging by the comments…
not easy though very satisfying!