Mephisto 3357 – Paul McKenna

Posted on Categories Mephisto

Greetings, barred-grid fans. Hopefully last week’s challenge didn’t take away your will to live!

The final Mephisto of 2024. I started this on Saturday night (the puzzle comes out around 7pm my time), but did not finish it in a single setting and had to polish off the last of it on Sunday morning. I think I have everything sorted out for the blog.

Away we go…

Across
1 Wife gave wonga so was giddy (7)
WHEELED – W(wife), HEELED(as in well-heeled, with money, wonga)
6 Mollusc is round and very fresh according to fishmonger (5)
OLIVE – O(round) and LIVE(fresh to a fishmonger)
10 Without causing desire Vienna Blue bucks (10)
UNENVIABLE – anagram of VIENNA BLUE
11 Poet’s straightaway polled about going into unit (7)
ATTONCE – NOTT(polled) reversed inside ACE(unit)
13 Mostly vague gossip about Cotter primarily being Rab C’s shadow (5)
SCOUG – SOUGH(vague rumour) minus the last letter, surrounding the first letter of Cotter
14 Excepting both leads soundly vocal of the stars (6)
ASTRAL – remove the first letters from FAST(soundly) and ORAL(vocal)
15 Rough tough giving nothing away (4)
THUG – anagram of TOUGH minus O(nothing)
16 Fish dish is back full of mash I creamed (7)
SASHIMI – IS reversed containing an anagram of MASH,I
20 With it inquire after fluid? (8, two words)
HIP FLASK – HIP(with it), then ASK(inquire) after FL(fluid)
22 New dignitary rejecting first order of flowers (8)
TRIGYNIA – anagram of DIGNITARY minus the first letter
24 Baroness in Barcelona buried tangle, say (7)
HIDALGA – HID(buried), ALGA(tangle, say)
26 A key ligature (4)
AESC – A, ESC(escape key)
28 Old and surprisingly early neckerchief used by Burns? (6)
O’ERLAY – O(old) and an anagram of EARLY
30 Arbitrary decree from King about entering service (5)
UKASE – K(king) and A(about) inside USE(service)
31 Levy one literally caught by overturning point (7)
MILITIA – I(one), LIT(literally) inside AIM(point) reversed
32 Engineering end of trees? Actually made a swathe of them (10)
ENFORESTED – anagram of END,OF,TREES
33 Maybe tête-à-tête involving tense student of theology (5)
SOFTA – SOFA(tête-à-tête) containing T(tense)
34 Awkwardly tense getting about your hydrocarbon (7)
STYRENE – anagram of TENSE containing YR(your)
Down
1 Prince packing weight to twist in a rare way (5)
WRAST – RAS(Ethiopian prince) inside WT(weight)
2 Caviar places, perhaps, cherish tea that’s served up (10)
HATCHERIES – anagram of CHERISH,TEA
3 Plenty locally loathe to replace cold son of Cain (6)
ENOUGH – UG(loathe, dialect) replacing C(cold) in ENOCH(son of Cain)
4 No more tarry over your rambling? (7)
LENGTHY – LENG(obsolete word for tarry) over THY(your)
5 Bounding from enclosure, for instance, northern river meadow (8)
ENCASING – ENC(enclosure), AS(for instance), ING(northern river meadow)
6 Calves of independent Kansas (4)
OIKS – O(of), I(independent), KS(Kansas)
7 Hot milk from France on top? You’ll find Scots unwilling. (5)
LAITH – H(hot) under LAIT(“milk” in French)
8 Lusitanian, say, is popular detaining discredited secret policeman (7)
IBERIAN – IN(popular) containing Lavrenty BERIA(Stalin’s chief of secret police)
9 To want female out is perfidious (7)
EEL-LIKE – FEEL LIKE(to want) minus F(female)
12 Gig informally such as the WI do if not singing Jerusalem (10, two words)
JAM SESSION – I think the second part is referring to the Women’s Institute having a SESSION making JAM after singing Jerusalem
17 In retirement Holmes was one — a tickler of the ivories (note’s right) (8)
APIARIST – A, PIANIST(tickler of the ivories) with N(note) replaced by R(right). Hmm, for some reason I read a fair bit of Arthur Conan Doyle last weekend…
18 Anonymous book’s about hotel receptions (7)
AT-HOMES -A(anonymous), TOME’S(book’s) surrounding H(hotel)
19 What crop top reveals lifted lacklustre figure (7)
MIDRIFF – DIM(lacklustre) reversed, then RIFF(musical figure)
21 Talent is not working around college (7)
FACULTY – FAULTY(not working) surrounding C(college)
23 Previously more attractive American and knight in row (6)
TAKIER – A(American) and K(knight) inside TIER(row)
25 Acting leader of Labour sitting on heaps to ration (5)
ALLOT – A(acting), the first letter of Labour, and LOT(heaps)
27 End first hint of corruption with no trouble (5)
CEASE – first letter of Corruption and EASE(no trouble)
29 Restaurateur shows a distinctive character (4)
AURA – hidden inside restAURAteur

11 comments on “Mephisto 3357 – Paul McKenna”

  1. Took me a number of sessions too, started on Sunday & finished on Monday, and now wish I’d taken one more stab at figuring out the one thing I didn’t understand, as NOTT = polled does seem like it would have been within my reach!

  2. My one query was the parsing of ATTONCE, which I knew, but I got lured into taking unit as ONE into which C is inserted. That led me into an unfruitful search for an explanation as to why ATT should be polled. The blog from ghc is much appreciated.

    ÆSC was a delight after ETH a couple of weeks ago. Presumably we’ll be treated to THORN and YOGH presently. It would have been nice if æsc could have been entered as a three-letter word, which would be doable with a cross checker of REÆDIFYE, but I doubt whether The Times puzzle app would cope with ligatured vowels.

    We had OERLAY a few months ago but with the variant spelling OWERLAY, so I was grateful for that.

    Overall another very enjoyable puzzle.

    1. Yes I recalled thinking about Millet Malone last weekend. Not sure whether it was in this puzzle or the Saturday or Sunday cryptics.

      1. I remember now, 2d in no 6 from the Times Mephisto book 1. I did that as well last week. “Like cockles in a barrow wheeled by road, twisting about Ireland’s capital (12).

  3. One minor amendment for 1a. To heel, as per Chambers, is “to supply with a weapon, money etc.” I think the derivation of “well-heeled” is more to do with shoemaking.
    Other than that, thanks for explaining ASTRAL. I knew what was required, but just couldn’t see it.

    Edit: And I can’t for the life of me see the pun in the top row.

    1. Top row pun: “Will to live” – in emails about any proposed changes or their absence, I use the apparent pun instead of the usual first across answer as part of the info to make sure we’re talking about the right puzzle. So Paul had the chance to correct my “huile d’olive”.

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