Greetings, barred-grid fans.
Another Paul McKenna specialty with the odd-sized grid, 11×13 instead of 12×12. Very attractive grid too, with the three long across answers preventing the grid from being broken up into four mini puzzles. I admit I was more than a bottle of cheap red in before starting this last weekend, so I’m going to have to dredge up some of the wordplay, but I don’t think this was too too difficult.
A reminder that in Mephisto, definitions are confirmed by Chambers, so if you don’t like a definition, blame a specific publishing house, and not a setter or editor.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Massive motor’s stuff in an objective way I take (6) |
| HUMMER – HUM(hoax, stuff), ME(the objective form of I), R(recipe, take | |
| 6 | Wartime nursing charity adopting French one for a joke (5) |
| FUNNY – FANY(First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, a charity that is not in Chambers) with UN(French for one) replacing A | |
| 10 | Who facilitates backing relative source of misery (7) |
| ENABLER – REL(relative) and BANE(source of misery) all reversed | |
| 11 | Measure of insulation accepted for ancient clobber (4) |
| TOGA – TOG(measure of thermal insulation in fabric), A(accepted) | |
| 12 | Actor, Ray, for kicks to go OTT (11, three words) |
| CARRY TOO FAR – anagram of ACTOR,RAY,FOR | |
| 13 | This chef’s store with many outrageous down payments (8) |
| STEWPOND -anagram of DOWN PAYMENTS minus MANY | |
| 14 | Prince’s soul as seen by European Queen (5) |
| AMEER – AME(soul in French), ER(queen) | |
| 16 | Sailor finally thrust back knot (4) |
| NURR – the last letter of sailoR, and RUN(thrust as a verb), all reversed | |
| 18 | Against going behind unprofitable conservatory (6) |
| LEAN-TO – TO(against) after LEAN(unprofitable) | |
| 19 | According to deputy, preceding feasible conclusion (11, two words) |
| DEPENDING ON – DEP(deputy), then ON(feasible) coming after ENDING(conclusion) | |
| 21 | Look, birds wanting new answer for old moves (6) |
| MIEVES – MIEN(look) and AVES(birds) minus N(new) and A(answer) | |
| 24 | Lazy lump’s sock (4) |
| SLUG – three definitions | |
| 26 | Out-and-out Wodehouse, fondly beginning from Bertie (5) |
| PLUMB – P.G. Wodehouse’s nickname was PLUM, then the first letter of Bertie. Bertie Wooster was a creation of P.G. Wodehouse, though I suspect that is not news to most Mephisto solvers. | |
| 28 | Wind a general up (8, two words) |
| NEAR GALE – anagram of A,GENERAL | |
| 29 | Surprisingly agile boring invertebrate (11) |
| GLOBIGERINA – anagram of AGILE,BORING | |
| 30 | Some trade in early old lamps (4) |
| EINE – hidden inside tradE IN Early | |
| 31 | Article broaching rest of oblivion (7) |
| LETHEAN – THE(article) inside LEAN(rest against) | |
| 32 | Binning homework freshly prepared year’s set (5) |
| READY – anagram of PREPARED minus PREP(homework), then Y(year) | |
| 33 | Promoters of alcohol agreed to package, for instance, it (6) |
| YEASTS – YES(agreed) containing AS(for istance), ‘T | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Wasteful abundance is hell, although mean start for retailer (13, three words) |
| HECK AND MANGER – HECK(hell), AND(although), MANGE(mean) and the first letter of Retailer. | |
| 2 | Render harmless title and a Greek character turned up (5) |
| UNARM – MR(title) and A, MU(Greek character) all reversed | |
| 3 | One may highlight mere prank excitedly (9, two words) |
| MARKER PEN – anagram of MERE PRANK | |
| 4 | Plate in city marketplace in Perth (7) |
| ELYTRON – ELY(city), TRON(marketplace in Perth) | |
| 5 | Check up in relation to order again (6) |
| RETELL – LET(check) reversed inside REL(relation) | |
| 6 | Old Dutchwoman that is bad in Spenser (6) |
| FROWIE – FROW(old Dutchwoman), IE(that is) | |
| 7 | Idealists being upper-class cap Botham and Chappell, say (8) |
| UTOPIANS – U(upper-class), TOP(cap) and Botham and Chappell were both famous cricketing IANS. One of my favorite knick-knacks that was produced for the 2007 Ashes and sponsored by Victoria Bitter was the Talking Beefy (Ian Botham is nicknamed Beefy) doll. It was coded with the dates of the Ashes tests and would sometimes call out “well played”, “time for a beer”, or “where’s Boony?” while the test matches were being played. Since I was living in the USA at the time, these dolls would start blathering around 10 at night and go on until 4 in the morning but I still loved them. There’s a preserved press article about them here | |
| 8 | No good collection of dirt perhaps causes disease (5) |
| NGANA – NG(no good), ANA(collection of gossip, dirt) | |
| 9 | Son by and large demolished greens (13, two words) |
| YARD-LONG BEANS – anagram of SON,BY,AND,LARGE | |
| 15 | Crop of thesps rejecting one very northern meadow first (9) |
| INGLUVIES – LUVVIES(thesps) minus one V(very), with ING(northern meadow) at the start | |
| 17 | River possibly going over layer of oysters echoed (8) |
| REVERBED – R(river), EVER(possibly), BED(layer of oysters) | |
| 20 | No longer fill little monkey with unfettered tele (7) |
| IMPLETE – IMP(little monkey) and an anagram of TELE | |
| 22 | Rule out edition by female nervously (6) |
| EDGILY – remove R(rule) from ED(edition) and GIRLY(female) | |
| 23 | Hammy quotation in exciting Times ignored (6) |
| STAGEY – TAG(quotation) inside SEXY(exciting) minus X(times) | |
| 25 | Are Remain to rally no more? (5) |
| RELIE – ‘RE(are), LIE(remain) | |
| 27 | Azerbaijani shopper needs this coaster to carry article (5) |
| MANAT – MAT(coaster) surrounding AN(article) | |
Enjoyable puzzle. I missed the wordplay for STEWPOND so thanks for pointing out what should have been obvious.
Hummer Funny
Is this a play on homophony?
Alfred Hitchcock considered puns to be “the highest form of literature”…
That’s what I took it as. Far-fetched, even by Paul’s standard.
I puzzled over river, possibly, and it never occurred to consider EVER for the latter word. I crossed fingers and surmised that REVER was somehow a possible spelling of river. The rest was fine, though HUMMER took some sorting out: very cute!
Just found FANY in Chamber’s 20th Century dictionary. A good reminder that earlier editions of Chambers are worth consulting. The nice thing about the old 20th C is that the abbreviations and acronyms are listed together in an appendix.