Mephisto 3398 – In the middle of the middle

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Mephisto

For a John Grimshaw, this puzzle was not too bad; only of medium difficulty, with some easier starter clues.   But this is still Mephisto, and it’s highly likely that most solvers have not heard of the long words around the edge.     But you have probably heard of many of the shorter words.   As a New Englander, I could biff quahog even if I couldn’t parse it, and I think we just had bonobo.

 
1 Group of poets knowing Henry the copyist (12)
HEPHTHEMIMER – HEP + H + THE MIMER.
10 Fast boat having partly copra hull (5)
PRAHU – Hidden in [co]PRA HU[ll].
11 Voice disapproval about head primate (6)
BONOBO – BO(NOB)O.
13 Fighting heroine, beloved one of Colombian revolutionaries (9, three words)
JOAN OF ARC – JO + AN + O’ FARC.
14 An eccentric Australian and English saying (5)
ADAGE –  A (DAG) E.
16 Shellfish two pints a shilling once? (6)
QUAHOG –  QU + A HOG.   The hog shilling was minted in Bermuda in the 17th century.
17 At least three birds, one that was flightless (7)
TITANIS – TIT + ANIS.
18 Old spear has to be modified (3)
ASH –  Anagram of HAS.
20 Give girl run around right up to date? (7, two words)
SPAN NEW – SP(ANN)EW.
22 Reptilian language — that’s surprising (7)
LANGAHA –  LANG + AHA.
26 Girl, one back in Scotland … (3)
ENA –  ANE backwards.
28 … or she will go back, one used to plain living (7)
LLANERO – OR ENA’LL backwards, a clever connected two-part clue.
29 Kirkpatrick’s invested in awful stale Edinburgh rock (6)
SKLATE –  S(K)LATE, where the outer letters are an anagram of STALE.   Kirkpatrick numbers come from the catalog of Scarletti’s works.
30 What could knock Maude into shape? (5)
MEDAU –  Anagram of MAUDE, an &lit.  Medau is a form of aerobic exercise.
31 Money of old Greek seen in fancy jewellery acting corruptly (9)
BOBOLLING –  B(OBOL)LING.
33 Vindicate biographer of King Alfred’s time (6)
ASSERT – ASSER + T.   Asser was a Welsh monk who wrote in 893.
34 I mostly flounder in some regions over Indian food (5)
KULFI – I + FLUK[e] backwards.
35 Situate farms subject to changing Turkish local jurisdiction (12)
MUTESSARIFAT – Anagram of SITUATE FARMS.
Down
1 Iranian official fixes exterior to jet-assisted take-off on hurried flight (12)
HOJATOLESLAM –  HO(J[et]-A[ssisted] T[ake]-O[ff])LES + LAM.
2 Fool set up in charge of lyric poetry (6)
EPODIC –  DOPE upside-down + I.C.
3 Where one may see planes turn to starboard shortly? (6)
HANGAR –  HANG A R[ight].
4 Against importing heroin if in America (3)
THO –  T(H)O.
5 Chippy initially has umpteen fried cod perhaps (7)
HUFFISH –  H[as] U[mpteen] F[ried] + FISH.
6 Rumor spreading round US city concerning skin disease (7)
MORULAR – MORU(LA)R, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of RUMOR, the US spelling appropriately enough.
7 Like driver’s diversions caught in driving rain? (5, two words)
IN CAR –  IN(C)AR, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of RAIN.   Do we detect a pattern here?
8 Led by doctor, assembled outside hospital in large numbers (9, two words)
MOB-HANDED –  M.O.  + B(H)ANDED.
9 Resembling a draft as William Taft crudely initialled it? (12)
ROUGH WROUGHT –  ROUGH W ROUGH T.    I had put rough thought, but couldn’t parse it, so I thought again.
12 Pease-porridge was revolting start to breakfast earlier (5)
BROSE –  B[reakfast] + ROSE.
15 Webern, possibly not one turning up key material using offcuts (9)
ATONALIST –  NOT A upside-down + A + LIST.
19 Queen supporting outrageous Ascot society hats (7)
CASTORS – Anagram of ASCOT + R + S.
21 Every year see a stupid American jock? (7)
PALOOKA –  P.A. + LOOK + A.
23 Sunak put out what could be annoying bull (5)
ANKUS – Anagram of SUNAK, an elephant-goad.
24 Spaghetti hoops coming with canellini? (6)
ANELLI – Hidden in [c]ANELLI[ni].
25 Aphrodite, universal queen over Athens, primarily (6)
URANIA –   U + RANI + A[thens].
27 Sectarian gathering about a book (5)
BABEE –  B(A.B)EE.  Babism evolved into Baha’i.
32 Trumpet section’s leaving legato effect (3)
LUR – [s]LUR.   Is S a valid abbreviation for section?  Yes.

12 comments on “Mephisto 3398 – In the middle of the middle”

  1. Quite a pleasingly puzzle from Mr Grimshaw, marred only by my blunder in copying my solution to the online entry.

  2. Finished this on Monday. First one in a few weeks I’ve had the time to settle down long enough with. The long Iranian title seemed (quite) vaguely familiar. It’s not just a matter of finding the time but also having the head space…

  3. 24dn: the clue actually reads “canellini”, which is required for the answer ANELLI – but double N is certainly the usual (if not the only) spelling. Perhaps that’s why the question-mark is there; personally I think it makes it a weak clue.

    1. I was surprised by the single N but Chambers has it an alternative spelling, so legal in Mephisto …

  6. Gentle for a Grimshaw, i.e. quite hard. I battled through it steadily in just over 45 minutes though.
    I generally run a week or three behind on the Jumbos so this puzzle helped me when PALOOKAVILLE came up in Jumbo 1753.
    Spaghetti hoops: alphabetti spaghetti for backing singers.

  7. Indeed, those long ones round the outside all looked liked anagrams still waiting to be resolved, though I did manage to divine ROUGH WROUGHT as a probable even though I thought the clue might be missing something to indicate where to put the W and T.

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