This Mephisto was pretty straightforward, and I managed to finish it in one sitting on a Saturday night. Most of the vocabulary was at least somewhat familiar, and I was able to write in a number of answers confidently without cracking Chambers. For once, I also found everything easy to parse as well.
| Across | |
| 1 | Russian royal raves about cracking shrimp (10) |
| TSAREVITCH – T(anagram of RAVES)ITCH. Easy start to the puzzle. | |
| 10 | Families having no time for fruit (5) |
| RIBES – [t]RIBES. | |
| 11 | Shocking band’s taken aback TV presenter (7) |
| EPATANT – TAPE backwards + ANT. The obvious answer, but probably only UK solvers will know Ant McPartlin. | |
| 12 | Pilgrimage united heading to Mecca with expression of joy (5) |
| UMRAH – U + M[ecca] + RAH. Since an umrah is a Muslim pilgramage, there is no misdirection here. | |
| 13 | Japanese painting put back in warehouse by afternoon (7) |
| NIHONGA – IN backwards + HONG + A. A hong is a warehouse in China. | |
| 14 | Sterile chamber reflecting latest in technology (5) |
| MOORY – ROOM backwards + [technolog]Y. | |
| 17 | Rides in a rickety boneshaker? (8) |
| DRAISINE – Anagram of RIDES IN A. A name applied to various vehicles. | |
| 18 | Breed of cattle beginning to offer cracking joint (6) |
| ANKOLE – ANK(O[ffer])LE. An African breed. | |
| 19 | Almost nothing on channel down under, it’s a pig (6) |
| GUTZER – GUT + ZER[o]. | |
| 21 | Bacardi? First two knocked back again (6) |
| ITERUM – [wh]ITE RUM. | |
| 23 | Like a gull by the sea, head back a little (6) |
| LARINE – (-m,+L)ARINE. M is knocked back one position in the alphabet, giving L. | |
| 25 | Irish sausage made from minced deer shin (8) |
| DRISHEEN – Anagram of DEER SHIN. | |
| 29 | Worry US criminal’s inside (5) |
| ANGST – [g]ANGT[a]. | |
| 30 | Year-end turns into this? (7) |
| NEERDAY – Anagram of YEAR-END, giving New Year’s Day in Scotland. | |
| 31 | Drama about deity striking a tree (5) |
| NGAIO – N(GAI[a])O. No or noh, the Japanese drama, giving the tree in New Zealand. | |
| 32 | Club-shaped key is binned getting corroded (7) |
| CLAVATE – CLAV[is] + ATE. | |
| 33 | Cat trapping tails of mice in spite (5) |
| VENOM – V([mic]E [i]N)OM. | |
| 34 | Wanted things dried at sea abroad (10) |
| DESIDERATA – Anagram of DRIED AT SEA. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | A little gas released from the rear? … (5) |
| TRUMP – T’ RUMP. Commenters, politics is not allowed in TftT! | |
| 2 | … wind the setter’s admitted to just now (6) |
| SIMOON – S(I’M)OON. | |
| 3 | Bear on stage acting, Rupert perhaps? (7) |
| ABROOKE – A + BROOKE, i.e. Rupert Brooke the WWI poet. On stage because used by Shakespeare. | |
| 4 | Praying mantis, one involved in awful terror, she’s biting heads off (9) |
| REARHORSE – Anagram of [t]ERROR [s]HE’S containing A. | |
| 5 | US jurors exercised nerve in nailing us (9) |
| VENIREMEN – Anagram of NERVE IN around ME. | |
| 6 | Weaver spinning an item of headgear (4) |
| TAHA – A HAT backwards, giving a weaverbird. | |
| 7 | Knack of using Maori’s ultimate pit for cooking (5) |
| HANGI – HANG + [maor]I. Since hangi is a Maori word, you might think of it right away. | |
| 8 | Ability once gained from working in engineering (6) |
| INGINE – Hidden in [work]ING IN E[ngineering]. | |
| 9 | Stand for display before crowd’s doubling (7) |
| ETAGERE – ERE GATE backwards – doubling back. | |
| 15 | Discerning joy with the aged filling each day (9) |
| EAGLE-EYED – EA(GLEE,YE)D | |
| 16 | Police arresting hawker? (9) |
| ASTRINGER – Anagram of ARRESTING, with a novel anagram indicator. Hawker in the sense of one managing hawks! | |
| 18 | Support Amnesty International ball (7) |
| AIDANCE – A.I. DANCE. | |
| 20 | Pep Guardiola’s back securing a point, one from Roma? (7) |
| ZINGANA – ZING (A,N) [guardiol]A. | |
| 22 | Palm oil’s given energy for one beset by stress (6) |
| TROELY – TR(O,-i,+E)Y. Try and stress as verbs. | |
| 24 | Indonesian retreat inspiring cry of joy (6) |
| NESIOT – NES(IO!)T. Indonesians frequently found in Mephisto. | |
| 26 | Provided with plans directly after independence (5) |
| IDEAD – I + DEAD, as in dead ahead. | |
| 27 | Opening chapter taken from bible, perhaps (5) |
| STOMA – STOMA[ch]. A bible is the third stomach of a cow, of course. | |
| 28 | Fuss about closure of various parts of women’s quarters (4) |
| ODAS – ADO backwards + [variou]S. | |
Two in a row for me! First time that’s happened. But my theory on the parsing of ITERUM appears to have been incorrect, and, no, I had never heard of the ANT!
Mistyped 6d when I entered my paper copy online. Moral victory but no prizes this week.
I couldn’t help thinking for 1d that He (for helium) ought to be the “little gas” escaping from “the rump”, but it seems to be just a happy accident.
That’s how I read it.
I found this quite gentle. Now to tackle the dreaded John Grimshaw!
Pretty breezy solve, exceptionally clear wordplay. I’d say we are due a stinker, but I’m writing this comment having already solved (I hope) the next one.
If you solved that one, you’re doing good. I hope you manage to parse it!
Breezed through (on paper) this yesterday afternoon, then forgot to submit. At least it means no typo.
Robert Teuton used ANT (and his TV presenting partner DEC) back in January in wordplay for “Art Deco”. They’re so very well known in the UK – and such useful three letters names – that I expect we may start to meet these living people in the daily puzzles now.
I’d also wondered about Helium in 1d, perhaps the question mark at the end of the clue meant we could understand it as the gas released from “the”.