I found this of considerable difficulty, but I eventually solved it, only with one error. Remember, if an answer won’t parse, it is probably wrong. So I ended up having to replaced thalassemia with thalassemic, and spotted with scanned. Spotted does work, but it’s not the right answer.
Grimshaw puzzles can be tough, and I had to do a lot of work to provide the correct parsings for my audience of half a dozen or so.
| Across | |
| 1 | Marine holding yours truly back with a bloody problem (11) |
| THALASSEMIC – THALASS(ME backwards_)IC. | |
| 10 | Passes round line in letter of gratitude (7) |
| COLLINS – COL(L,IN)S, as derived from Austen. | |
| 12 | Alley in Scotland attracting English mathematician (5) |
| BOOLE – BOOL + E. An alley is here a variety of marble. | |
| 13 | US president keeping vote lead in east, not a full digit (9) |
| PREPOLLEX – PRE(POLL,E[ast])X. Prex or prexy is a US-centric word. | |
| 14 | Smear with dung left with urine on the turn (4) |
| LEEP – L + PEE backwards. | |
| 16 | Linen once worn by northern girl (5) |
| LYNNE – LYN(N)E, for a random girl. | |
| 17 | Giant bird and northern jackdaw look finally united fighting kite (7) |
| ROKKAKU – ROK + KA + [loo]K + U. | |
| 18 | Ill-mannered bodyguards interrupting speech (5) |
| SASSY – SA(S.S)Y. The SS was originally Hitler’s bodyguard. | |
| 19 | Local girl taking in a single drifter (6) |
| MOONER – MO(ONE)R. | |
| 21 | All through the middle part of ball game (6) |
| ACROSS – A CROSS, a pass in football. | |
| 23 | A small coin Germany declared out of use (5) |
| AREDD – A + RED + D. As in one red cent, apparently. Out of use points to an obsolete word. | |
| 24 | Racing driver unfortunate during last reversing (7) |
| RALLIER – RE(ILL)AR, all backwards. | |
| 26 | Asian plant Henry fed to pet pig (5) |
| DHOLL – D(H)OLL. | |
| 29 | Keep at a distance from most of navy (4) |
| FLEE – FLEE[t]. | |
| 30 | While doing something else with old metal and silk thread (9, two words) |
| IN PASSING – IN + PASSING, where passing as a noun is defined as gold or silver thread with a silk core. | |
| 31 | Called on to retire, we finally expire suddenly (5) |
| NEESE – SEEN backwards + [w]E. Expire in the sense of expel air, the root meaning. | |
| 32 | Female looking ahead before cutting historic tax (7) |
| SEERESS – S(EER)ESS, an alternate spelling of cess. | |
| 33 | Dug up something deposited in spring in grave, dead? (11) |
| DISINTERRED – DI(SINTER)RE + D. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Nonsense line abandoned by Dublin party (5) |
| HOOEY – HOO[l]EY. | |
| 3 | Everyone new is in in good time only once (9) |
| ALLENARLY – ALL + E(N)ARLY. | |
| 4 | Still very angry when hotel’s lacking (7) |
| AIRLESS – [h]AIRLESS. | |
| 5 | Seen running on railway showing disdain (6) |
| SNEERY – Anagram of SEEN + RY. | |
| 6 | Tourist publication’s not good in Scots onscreen edition (5) |
| EBOOK – [guid]EBOOK. | |
| 7 | Girl loving criminal way of working lines (4) |
| MOLL – M/O + L + L. | |
| 8 | Seized Conservative reportedly let out (7) |
| CLEEKED – C + sounds like LEAKED. | |
| 9 | Initially trace extinct old wild ox, smaller, lacking in character? (11) |
| TEXTURELESS – T[race] + EXT + URE + LESS. | |
| 10 | Good-natured about empty local pub numbers limitation? (11) |
| CALLBARRING – CA(L[oca]L, BAR)RING. | |
| 11 | Be driven by wind power in swim round Cape Wrath (5) |
| SPOOM – S(P)OOM. Cape Wrath merely indicates that soom is a Scots word. | |
| 15 | Outlaw party always carries large ammo belt (9) |
| BANDOLEER – BAN + DO (L) EER, an alternate spelling. | |
| 18 | Son drunk made out (7) |
| SCANNED – S + CANNED. | |
| 20 | Men eat with European minister just appointed (7) |
| ORDINEE – OR + DINE + E. | |
| 22 | Find out about English literary doctor (5) |
| SEUSS – S(E)USS. | |
| 23 | Decision about one Eastender (6) |
| ARRIET – ARR(I)ET, for a random Cockney woman. | |
| 25 | Can whale be relative newcomer to North America? (5) |
| ISSEI – IS SEI? A first-generation Japanese immigrant. | |
| 27 | Miss old comic abandoned by clubs (5) |
| LEESE – [c]LEESE, John. | |
| 28 | Old man’s second free ticket (4) |
| PASS – PA’S S, a Quickie clue. | |
Spent a long time trying to get HAEMA- to produce the answer to 1a. Only later did THALASSEMIC appear.
I couldn’t see the wordplay for 30d but it had to be IN PASSING when all the cross checkers were there. Thanks for clearing up that one.
21a I took to be (l)ACROSS(e).
I often read this blog just to marvel at how someone can manipulate the language to construct such intricate clues, and how others can work out what the hell is going on. I’m at QC SCC level, this stuff is so far beyond me it’s ridiculous, but very fascinating, so thank you!
Well five years ago I was only doing the QCCs and very slowly. But fascination with the English language and owing a Chambers dictionary drew me towards the Mephisto. Undoubtedly there are some solvers who possess an extraordinary vocabulary backed up with a classics education. I’m not one of those. I’m a dyslexic mathematician who likes solving puzzles. My goal is to understand the wordplay. Most weeks I get all the answers but not all the wordplay. This week I score myself 35/36. Over time you become familiar with the setter’s style. Then you have to dare to believe that the answer you’ve constructed exists. Believe you me, there have been some crazy words plucked from dusty corners of the language – kgotla being one that’s come up a few times. By the way I’m still a very slow solver of all crosswords. Keep reading the blog! Jonathan and George do an amazing job.
I am the same as you Plymouthian, although even reaching the SCC seems daunting.
I tried one a few weeks back and managed half. That was an exception. This time I eventually managed ROKKAKU and PASS.
Rarely do other clues seem “gettable” for us ordinary mortals – such as ACROSS. The others are just mind boggling.
A fascinating blog. Thank you.
The thing about Mephisto is that you have many more crossing letters. This allows you to narrow your search a little.
What I do is go through the grid, picking off the easy ones and trying to get started somewhere. There are Mephisto chestnuts, and you get to know them – zebu/zebub, tamarin/tamarind. Once you have a few in a particular area, you can often use the wordplay to advantage. At this point, I will start checking in my copy of Chambers. Yes, knowing Latin and Greek helps a lot, along with having read The Faerie Queene, Chaucer and Morte D’Arthur. If you know enough, you might even get my blog title.
There was one Mephisto where I never got to the point of checking Chambers – my grid was complete! You won’t see that very often, but I often get halfway there before cracking it.
Every single word in the grid contains double letters – which must have made the grid construction even more difficult. Kudos!
I sensed a message in the completed grid but couldn’t find it. Can anybody else see it?
Many thanks for the blog. I’m sure your audience must be larger than you think.
Yes I spotted the double letters too. Great grid-filling!
21ac: Like Richard above, I parsed ACROSS as the middle part of Lacrosse, the definition being “all through”.
Agreed.
As one of the half-dozen, can I just say thank you for your efforts in disentangling some very knotty clues. I did get all of the answers, but several were more a matter of luck or guesswork than comprehension.
Found this very hard.
Managed to get through but was left with 5 clues needing parsing. Couldn’t find a reference for indium being a metal nor being old. Completely missed passing as a noun. Thank you for the blog.
I really enjoyed this one. Difficult, but I never felt completely stuck. I didn’t notice the double letter thing – amazing!
I agree with others that 21ac is
lACROSSe.‘ARRIET (the female equivalent of an ‘ARRY) is a specific term for a ‘jovial vulgar Cockney’ found in Chambers.
19Across
Does mor mean girl in Scot’s?
In Chambers you have to follow a link, “see mauther,” where you’ll find:
mauther or mawther /möˈdhər/ (dialect, esp E Anglia)
noun
(also, esp vocatively, mawr or mor) a girl
A big awkward girl
ORIGIN: Origin obscure
Slight correction, placement of brackets.
SE(ERE)SS
I did complete a Mephisto at least once, but reading this awe inspiring blog reminds me they are too hard for me!
Small question. Does replacing thalassemia with thalassemic mean that “with” becomes part of the definition?
Yes.
Thanks Guy
Bit of a crazy week – I had not even opened the puzzle when vinyl1 sent me a text asking about a few of the parsings (needless to say I was of absolutely zero help). I found I completed the puzzle from the bottom up. I prefer Collins the drink to Collins the letter.
I got a £20 Waterstones voucher in the post today as a runner-up for this.. Yippee!