I had a little trouble getting started, but I made tolerable progress until the nearly the end. However the last few were pretty tough, and requited an extensive dictionary trawl. But I did eventually find the answers.
While writing the blog, nothing looks too tricky, but there were several crucial answers that are not part of my vocabulary. You would think that if you solved enough Mephistos, you would know every corner of Chambers, but I have not gotten there yet.
Across | |
5 | How awful for Scots with introduction of haggis in fish food? (8, two words) |
AICH WHOW – AI CH(W,H[aggis])OW. | |
10 | Modified umbel on water plant (7) |
NELUMBO – Anagram of UMBEL ON. | |
12 | Noble old ball game, rugby league (4) |
EORL – E.O. + R.L. E.O. is a gambling game involving a tiny ball and some slots. And, of course, ‘eorlas und ceolas’ is a well-know half-line from Beowulf. | |
13 | Programme during test not to be trusted (6) |
TRAPPY – TR(APP)Y. It was the answer I had to look up, as the cryptic is fairly easy. | |
14 | Henry IV’s alarm — note king running to and fro (6) |
TIRRIT – TI + R plus TI + R backwards. Henry IV in the sense that this word is found in Shakespeare’s play of that name, although perhaps it is a typesetter’s error. | |
15 | Old membranes — sought-after hit with drummers (7) |
RIMSHOT – RIMS + HOT. | |
16 | Good mature fruit (4) |
GAGE – G + AGE, a bit of a Quickie clue. | |
17 | Exercising promptly, old gentleman — active, hot, red (11, two words) |
PETITE SIRAH -P.E. + TITE + SIR + A + H. You could look up tite, it’s in there. | |
19 | Pistols loaded with sulphur, an unknown aspect of warfare (6) |
PSYOPS – P(S,Y)OPS. | |
24 | Mortgage in Elgin arranged on a lot of money (6) |
WADSET – WAD + SET for this Scots word. | |
26 | Once again united with lost soul in your old way of stealing (11) |
THEFTUOUSLY – TH(EFT + U + anagram of SOUL)Y. | |
27 | Old ship’s company regularly caroused (4) |
CRUE – C[a]R[o]U[s]E[d]. | |
28 | Like some small plants American college planted in some ground (7) |
MUSCOSE – M(U.S.,C)OSE, where the outer letters are an anagram of SOME. | |
31 | What finishes off tern that is after fish sandwich (6) |
SARNIE – SAR +[ter]N + I.E., an evident biff for many solvers. | |
32 | Tenant’s right ignoring energy which cattle consumed (6) |
STOVER – [e]STOVER. I nearly biffed clover, but couldn’t justify it, so held off. | |
33 | Train operating company admits no Great Western vehicle theft (4) |
TWOC – T(W[estern])OC. Presumably, the small Western is wanted – that would be a W. | |
34 | Note cinema system Universal backed? It may be tricky for subtitlers (7, two words) |
FAUX AMI – FA + (IMAX + U backwards). I’m not quite sure what is going on with the literal. | |
35 | Fish with spots, reportedly a contribution to diminishing invisibility? (8) |
NINE-EYES – Jocular cryptic hint, I believe. A lamprey. |
Down | |
1 | Free port flourishing in character is set up (8) |
ENTREPOT – TO(PERT)NE, all upside-down. | |
2 | International rock band upset club (4) |
MERI – I + R.E.M. upside down. | |
3 | Burning forgotten custard you once turned up (6) |
FLAMEY – FLAM + YE upside-down. Forgotten, indeed! No word is ever forgotten in Mephisto. | |
4 | Goes on hunches, but ignoring heart (4) |
HUPS – HU[m]PS, where hump and hunch are both verbs. | |
5 | Champ racing around one course, one both wanting and not wanting water? (11) |
AMPHIPATHIC – Anagram of CHAMP around I PATH I. | |
6 | Like an old village school admitting young child, not old (6) |
COTTED – CO(T[o]T)ED. | |
7 | Fine for German pulled up about short volume (7) |
WERGILD – WER(GIL[l])D, where DREW is upside-down, but the contents are not. | |
8 | Israeli measure army regularly dropped — about time (6) |
HORARY – HORA + [a]R[m]Y. | |
9 | Liver, say, stuffed with one English herb (7) |
ORIGANE – OR(I)GAN + E. I you biff oregano, you’ll be sorry. | |
11 | Successful date in Rome ends with opera on me (11, two words) |
DIES FAUSTUS – DIES + FAUST + US. Why the setter is using the royal we is not indicated. | |
18 | Panama’s source area hosts one reptilian genus (8) |
HATTERIA – HATTER (I) A. Of course, the answer sounds like a place where you would buy a hat, according to the Uxbridge. | |
20 | Desert dwellers‘ conflict has overturned independence (7) |
SAHRAWI – WAR HAS upside-down + I. | |
21 | Trespass in which female turns to cross barrier (7) |
OXFENCE – O(-f,+X)FENCE. | |
22 | What transmits French refusal about Europe (6) |
NEURON – N(EUR)ON. | |
23 | Hove Corporation dare to abolish department (6) |
TUMEFY – TUM + [d]EFY. | |
25 | Not ready on holiday for speaking language (6) |
SLOVAK – Sounds like SLOW on VAC. | |
29 | Carbonaceous material out of lake includes unknown bone (4) |
COXA – CO(X)A[l]. | |
30 | Seed mostly scattered on a field (4) |
SEME – SEME[n]. My childhood study of heraldry made this a write-in. |
Hurray! My streak continues.
I was disconcerted to not find FLAMEY in my Chambers app—only “flamy.”
I have only vague memories of studying Beowulf but wouldn’t it be ceorlas ( churls) to go with eorlas (earls)?
Got the LHS done pretty quickly, then a long pause before the RHS opened up. Found this a little more tricky than usual but did manage to parse everthing. FLAMEY seems a bit off as it doesn’t appear in the current or older editions of Chambers. Yes it’s in a few online dictionaries but none of the main dictionaries. However it did appear on a pair of Simpson’s boxer shorts “Ooh Falmey!” I once owned. As you’d only see me wearing these in my bed chamber I guess FLAMEY qualifies.
34’s literal is explained under the entry in Chambers for False Friend.
4d. HUMPS and HUNCHES are both nouns, for me, as in a hunch or hump on someone’s back.
11d. US isn’t the royal WE, just the informal or colloquial version of ME, as in “Give us a minute.”
On the other hand, still not sure about the explanation or parsing of TWOC.
My parsing of TWOC was. TOC admitting (G)W