This was not very difficult, although I had a hard time getting started, and had to open up operations in the southeast corner of the grid. But as usually happens in Mephisto, once you have a few crossing letters, more answers become obvious and you can expand around the grid.
I ended up breaking off with about half the grid filled, and finished it off the next day. Most of the answers were known words, and I could have made faster progress by biffing, but a single wrong answer can really mess up your Mephisto solve. So I held back on Oscan until the very end, even though it is the obvious answer.
| Across | |
| 1 | Highland slopes, west-facing, dry up what’s left of brambles (5) |
| BRAES – SEAR + B[ambles], all backwards. | |
| 5 | Dark attempt to cramp women’s cunning (7) |
| SWARTHY – S(W,ART)HY. A shy is a toss, and hence an attempt. | |
| 10 | With it missing is Jacobi perhaps back unshaven? (9) |
| WHISKERED – W[it]T +IS + DEREK backwards. It helps to know Derek Jacobi, but this is not essential. | |
| 12 | Maintain average over week (4) |
| AVOW – AV + O + W, of which only av is a somewhat obscure abbreviation. | |
| 13 | Interrupt food to down quart (7) |
| CHEQUER – CHE(QU)ER. | |
| 14 | Active kid with more fish (7, two words) |
| RED MOKI – Anagram of KID + MORE. | |
| 16 | Upright character delivers flowers (5) |
| IRIDS – I + RIDS. | |
| 17 | Kept in tower in the main young one’s first to be snatched (5) |
| SILO’D – SIL(O[ne’s]D. A sild is a young herring. | |
| 18 | Refuges from the rain? Kiss and there’s love initially up in the air (11, two words) |
| BUS SHELTERS – BUSS + anagram of THERE’S L. | |
| 22 | Keepers of quarry — as managers we’d come unstuck (11, two words) |
| GAME WARDENS – Anagram of MANAGERS WE’D. | |
| 23 | I emptied and put back dustbin at a stretch (5, two words) |
| ON END – ONE + D[ustbi]N backwards. | |
| 25 | Counties wanting hard breeds (5) |
| SIRES – S[h]IRES. | |
| 27 | Bishop accepting eccentricity got up to parley dully (7) |
| BEPROSE – B(E)P + ROSE, where bishop is Bp. instead of B. | |
| 28 | This month’s church is Latin, close to the Vatican City (7) |
| CHISLEV – CH + IS + L + [th]E + V. Yes, Vatican City has an IVR. | |
| 29 | Furniture left centre backwards (4) |
| BUHL – L + HUB backwards. | |
| 30 | Blow blasted Starmer on the back of sloth (9) |
| AIRSTREAM – AI + anagram of STARMER. | |
| 31 | With light receding around district we enjoy nature (7) |
| NUDISTS – NU(DIST)S, i.e. SUN backwards. | |
| 32 | No more favours for some local victories (5) |
| GREES – Double definition, both the least-used meanings of obscure words. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Roaring tomfoolery about a bar’s closure (7) |
| BLARING – BL(A, [ba]R)ING. Tomfoolery is CRS for jewellery. | |
| 2 | Place of children’s tales off about one word of action, eg (9) |
| RIVERBANK – R(I,VERB)ANK. Referring to a UK children’s TV series that international solvers may not know. | |
| 3 | Australian Left blame free estate (7) |
| ALODIUM – A + L + ODIUM. A is apparently a valid abbreviation for Australia, America, and Austria. | |
| 4 | American rigs beginning to haul in shipping order thus held up (5) |
| SHOOS – S(H[aul])O + SO upside-down. Even US solvers may not know this usage – I didn’t. | |
| 5 | Astonishing chart that signals caution in place of confinement (11, two words) |
| SICK CHAMBER – SICK + CH + AMBER. Sick in this sense comes from surfing and skateboarding. | |
| 6 | West Indians get stuck into these when about to wail mostly (5) |
| AKEES – A(KEE[n]S. The wordplay is clear, but the literal needs some explaining. | |
| 7 | What’s necessary is lost rare reward (7) |
| REQUITE – REQU[is]ITE. | |
| 8 | Almost flat, good for local’s basket (4) |
| TRUG – TRU[e] + G. | |
| 9 | Once greatly revered drummer in time going north (5) |
| YDRAD – Y(DR)AD, i.e. day upside-down. The abbreviation probably comes from liner notes or similar. | |
| 11 | King’s reps let in small female birds (11) |
| SHIREREEVES -S(HIRE, REEVE)S. If you’re an etymologist, you’ll see where this is going. | |
| 15 | Plate out of Endeavour’s introduction, north of Oxford? (9) |
| HORSESHOE – HORS E[ndeavour] + SHOE. | |
| 19 | One in sect somehow uses sin (7) |
| SENUSSI – Anagram of USES SIN. | |
| 20 | English near blooming Spain — let’s go! (7, two words) |
| EN ROUTE – E + NR + OUT + E. | |
| 21 | Strangely sessile plants (7) |
| SESELIS – Anagram of SESSILE. | |
| 23 | Old Italian turned up very good mine (5) |
| OSCAN – SO upside-down + CAN. Can is naval slang for a depth charge. | |
| 24 | Twerps stumped up dollar on top (5) |
| DOLTS – DOL+ ST upside-down. | |
| 25 | Special charity do giving support for miners (5) |
| SPRAG – SP + RAG. | |
| 26 | Flipping wife departs big house (4) |
| BIRD – RIB upside-down + D. | |
I had to look up Riverbank, but apart from that a pretty straightforward solve.
With a nice little Andante by Giuliani as the theme tune. Whenever I played it there would always be somebody of a certain age who would call out, “Tales of the Riverbank.”
I remember the guitar theme but didn’t know it was by Giuliani. At the time the series impressed me enough to call my first hamster Hammie. Happy days!
Like George, looked up the kids’ show. I was glad to realize, just a little while ago, who Jacobi is, checking my results before coming here. This is the one I’ve done the most of in one day, since it was not until this afternoon that I got the momentum for lift-off.
LOI SILO’D. NHO SILD, but what makes Mephisto fun is that it’s educational.
Couldn’t suss the wordplay for 15d. On seeing Jonathan’s explanation it seems I was being lured into a deliberate trap: Endeavour being a reference to Inspector Morse (set around Oxford), which when losing its introduction becomes ORSE. But how to explain the H?
I believe the top-line pun is “PRAISEWORTHY”.
I took it that Jonathan didn’t rate the pun rather than not recognising it. I guess it was a trifle forced.
Yes, the puzzle is praiseworthy, the pun, not so much.
I think they may be intended to be groanworthy rather than accurate.
Mostly straightforward, but two clues I wasn’t keen on. 17ac, SILOD – “in the main young” is a pretty vague definition for sild, which doesn’t simply mean young fish, but specifically young herring. 5dn, SICK CHAMBER – “that signals caution”, an adjectival phrase, is grammatically questionable for amber; my Chambers (admittedly a vintage edition) only has that meaning of amber as a noun (“the orange traffic-light, which acts as a cautionary signal”).
I think phrases like “that signals caution” have been accepted, in at least some puzzles expected to be easier than Mephisto, as an alternative to “something that signals caution”. Read as statements, they’re certainly true ones about the defined words.
If we insist on something like “young herring”, we are likely to rob the setters of the chance to use the kind of deception achieved by “in the main young”, and I can’t see that “in the main young” is really worse than the nearby “fish” rather than “NZ sea fish” defining “red moki”.
Managed to finish and parse except for 23down. I can not accept that a depth charge is a mine. I agree it is referred to as a can but not a mine which is a different thing.