This is as easy as Mephisto gets – I filled in most of the answers without cracking my Chambers. I would expect many of the regular Mephisto fans to be a bit disappointed, but we do need to refresh the pool of Mephisto solvers, and you have to start somewhere. Most of the answers are just regular words or common expressions. I thought immediately of poetaster and confessor just from the literals in the clues, which is not usual with Mephisto.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Gruff and grumpy about European no doubt (6) |
| SURELY – SUR(E)LY. | |
| 6 | Place behind obscure English whisky (6) |
| DIMPLE – DIM + PL + E. Dimple is a brand of blended Scotch whisky, which of course is not in Chambers. Those who have not heard of it will have to use the cryptic. | |
| 11 | Lurk as new militia, with leader ousted, reassembles (9, three words) |
| LIE IN WAIT – Anagram of NEW [m]ILITIA | |
| 12 | Clued up about Channel pottery (9) |
| AGATEWARE – A(GATE)WARE. One of them meanings of gate is a narrow passage. | |
| 13 | Something immature on the way of the warrior (4) |
| BUDO – BUD O’. | |
| 14 | Raincoat leads to mild irritation to back (4) |
| MINO – M[ild] I[rritation] + ON backwards. | |
| 15 | What happen in glee clubs? Breaks to take in Dynasty (9, two words) |
| PART SONGS – PART(SONG)S. The Song dynasty is often spelt Sung, probably to avoid giving the wrong idea. | |
| 16 | Pun about length of a branch (5) |
| RAMAL – RAM + A + L. Pun here is pun(2), meaning to push or ram. | |
| 17 | Australian beast is chained up (7) |
| ECHIDNA – Anagram of CHAINED, for the beast I can never spell. | |
| 21 | Heart of those in rich Aegean region that’s luxuriant (7) |
| NEOGAEA – Anagram of AEGEAN around [th]O[se]. Rich is an anagram indicator. | |
| 23 | Short paragraph by old lecturer is spoken (5) |
| PAROL – PAR + O L. I believe par is old newspaper slang – if you buy a full-page ad, we’ll give you a par in a story. | |
| 24 | Edward was one caught playing with gold on heraldic form (9) |
| CONFESSOR – C + ON + FESS + OR. It helps to know that a fess is something on a shield. Exactly what, is not important. | |
| 27 | No good type with no hope gets a heavy blow (4) |
| ONER – [g]ONER. | |
| 28 | French kept woman about, tad short of time (4) |
| AMIE – A + MI[t]E. | |
| 29 | New ad’s about one clique trapping male being conciliatory? (9) |
| DISARMING – Anagram of AD’S around I + R(M)ING. | |
| 30 | Who cannot write good verse or bad operettas? (9) |
| POETASTER – Anagram of OPERATTAS, a write-in for me. | |
| 31 | Box with orderly — fine and right to go, more than is right (6) |
| UNDULY -[f]UND + [r]ULY. I may be wrong here, fund does seem correct. | |
| 32 | Rocky edges are dotted about (6) |
| ARETES – ARE + SET backwards. Dotted in the sense of place down at irregular intervals. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Is English sailor of Royal Navy “marine”? (7, two words) |
| SEA BORN – ‘S + E + AB + O’ + RN. | |
| 2 | French one to drag round aged trotters (7) |
| UNGULAE – UN + LUG backwards + AE. | |
| 3 | With a weighty wallet freshly adorned, my eye! (12, two words) |
| READY MONEYED – Anagram of ADORNED, MY EYE. | |
| 4 | Splenetic press note a term for immoral (6) |
| LIENAL – LIE + N + A + [immora]L. | |
| 5 | Oddly wet inside upcoming ghostly aspect of God’s acre? (7, two words) |
| YEW TREE – Anagram of WET inside EERY upside-down. Yew trees are traditionally found in cemeteries. | |
| 6 | “Two-rayed”, adjective in Shorter Oxford, say (5) |
| DIACT – DI(A)CT. | |
| 7 | Sudden arrival sadly ruins hospital (6) |
| INRUSH – Anagram of RUINS + H. | |
| 8 | Who’d write sagas? TV’s traveller, driver of dim manner (12) |
| PALINDROMIST – PALIN + DR + ‘O + MIST. | |
| 9 | Fix up grand Chinese tin (5) |
| LIANG – NAIL upside-down + G. Old Chinese money. | |
| 10 | End of one, however poetically, with small moral significance (5) |
| ETHOS – [on]E + THO’ + S. | |
| 18 | A cast’s blooming acting for ice cream (7) |
| CASSATA – Anagram of A CAST’S + A. | |
| 19 | Candidate’s not out to proceed secretly on east (7) |
| NOMINEE – NO + MINE + E, mine in the sense of burrow clandestinely underground. | |
| 20 | Wholly discharge all but final urges (7) |
| ALLEGES – ALL + EGES[t]. | |
| 22 | Aged Australian dandy raised to be unreal (6) |
| AERIAL – AE + LAIR upside-down. The second use of aged = AE in the puzzle. This is lair(3) – why use a common word when an obscure word will do? | |
| 23 | Person closing occasion with no husband is perhaps a butler (6) |
| POURER – P([h]OUR)ER. | |
| 24 | Rodent is evasive fully raised (5) |
| COYPU – COY + UP upside-down. | |
| 25 | Close to one feasible flaming rocket (5) |
| ONION – ON + I + ON. | |
| 26 | Fresh mug taking the place of everything in servery (5) |
| SASSY – S(-culler,+ASS)Y. Everything here just means the contents of scullery. | |
Yes, I had ten answers before I came across one that could only be in a Mephisto (DIACT). Fortunately, there were some new words or usages utilized in the clues. (One of the answers here showed up in last Sunday’s 15×15, by David McLean.) Enjoyed the goofy pun and was busy enough with other things this week that I didn’t miss having a Mephisto to finish.
Box (n) meaning 19 is listed as fund. As in, i guess, a collection box.
This time I went from solving 1a to guessing the pun to immediately supposing whisky in 2a was a reference to Dimple. That doesn’t happen very often for me.
I’m not complaining about this being on the easier end of the spectrum. It was fun to solve and nice not to have to been so heavily dependent on Chambers.
I’m another regular solver who didn’t mind this was on the easy side. I enjoyed it a lot and found it satisfying not to have to use the Dictionary much. Indeed I would welcome a spectrum of difficulty such as we get in the The Times daily 15×15. I’ve not had any Haig’s Dimple for a long time, but I see it is still on the shelves. Thank-you Paul and Vinyl.
Thanks Paul and Vinyl1. I also found it no less enjoyable for being on the easier end of the spectrum- clearly and precisely clued. Loved the pun as always- can just imagine the actress herself saying her name like that in her cute fashion.
Yes, I found this very straightforward – just as well, as I was away from home and so Chambers-less. (I’m old-fashioned – I have the hard copy rather than online version.)
Yes, straightforward. I was puzzled by 6ac, not having heard of the whisky and trying for a while to justify it using Chambers.
6ac. In Yes Minister, “Mr Haig with the dimples” is the sender of the first message to the “Communications Room”, set up at the reception to circumvent the alcohol ban in an Arab state. (Alongside Mr Smirnoff from the Soviet embassy, a delegation of Teachers etc).
First 40 seconds of this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-aibUV-Ltg
This joke always falls flat to younger audiences. Haig Dimple is not well known now in the UK. And the bottle hidden in the briefcase is Haig Gold label, which came in a standard shaped round bottle (and actually had a white label!).
Apparently it’s much better known in the US, where it’s widely available as “Dimple Pinch”. I don’t know the show, but there’s a famous scene in Breaking Bad where Walter White orders “Dimple Pinch, neat” and the distinctive triangular bottle with the dimpled (or “pinched”) sides is featured.
Wikipedia: “It and the bottle design for Coca-Cola …were the first two bottle designs to appear in the Principal Register of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.”
***
Saw the Shirley Temple pun across the top. Didn’t think of the “alcohol-free” cocktail.
For “mine” in 19, Chambers has the more directly relevant intransitive verb meaning “To proceed secretly or insidiously (figurative).”
I love the idea of proceeding insidiously, figuratively or otherwise!