I completed all but 6 answers within 27 minutes, but needed as long again to finish off the remainder, all of them originating in the NE corner.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Convey Duke’s challenge (5) |
| BEARD – BEAR (convey), D (duke). As in the saying ‘beard the lion in his den’. | |
| 4 | Baffles with method that produces performance (5,4) |
| FLOOR SHOW – FLOORS (baffles), HOW (method). This was one of the clues that gave me a lot of trouble as my first thought was ‘freak show’ and I took a while to get past that. | |
| 9 | Guy with treated rash is getting purification (9) |
| CATHARSIS – CAT (guy) anagram [treated] of RASH, IS. Yoof-speak from a bygone age! | |
| 10 | Customs network, though diminished, will impound gold (5) |
| MORES – MES{h} (network) [diminished] contains [will impound] OR (gold) | |
| 11 | Nearly all of soccer team is accepting new sport (6) |
| TENNIS – TEN (nearly all of soccer team – eleven) + IS, containing [accepting] N (new) | |
| 12 | Temperature attracting cheers in the sea in part of France (8) |
| BRITTANY – T (temperature) + TA (cheers) contained by [in] BRINY (the sea). Cf (from last Friday): Dry (TT) area (A) sinking into the sea (BRINY) somewhere across the Channel. | |
| 14 | A little error linked to steerage system, we hear (9) |
| SCINTILLA – Sounds like [we hear] “sin” (error) + “tiller” (steerage system) | |
| 16 | A lot of bad weather has European country recalled in poem (5) |
| HAIKU – HAI{l} (bad weather) [a lot], UK ((European country) reversed [recalled] | |
| 17 | Sea vessel about to have components switched (1-4) |
| U-BOAT – ‘about’ becomes U BOAT when two of its components (A and U) are switched | |
| 19 | Satisfied after start of last month regarding length (9) |
| DECIMETRE – DEC 1 (start of last month), MET (satisfied), RE (regarding) | |
| 21 | The others tie up, reversing for convenience? (4,4) |
| REST ROOM – REST (the others), MOOR (tie up) [reversing] | |
| 22 | Drinks in middle of week? Pass (6) |
| ELAPSE – LAPS (drinks) contained by [in] {w}EE{k} [middle] | |
| 25 | Call attracting attention about bone — antelope (5) |
| ORIBI – OI (call attracting attention) containing [about] RIB (bone) | |
| 26 | Sue’s dull discourse, clever (9) |
| PROSECUTE – PROSE (dull discourse), CUTE (clever). PROSE gets a bad time in crosswordland, but ‘dull’ is in the dictionaries as a figurative meaning of the word. | |
| 27 | Recording border line involves a long time? Not very long (9) |
| EPHEMERAL – EP (recording), HEM (border), ERA (a long time), L (line) | |
| 28 | Getting naked around end of evening is a suggestive move (5) |
| NUDGE – NUDE (naked) containing [around] {evenin}G [end] | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Comment on resuming entering this answer? (4,2,6,3) |
| BACK TO SQUARE ONE – If tackling the clues in order the solver has already visited ‘square one’ of the grid for 1ac and has now gone back to it for this clue. | |
| 2 | Respond to a study about time (3,2) |
| ACT ON – A, CON (study) containing [about] T (time) | |
| 3 | Detective happens to interrupt cunning chronicler (7) |
| DIARIST – DI (detective – inspector), IS (happens) contained by [to interrupt] ART (cunning) | |
| 4 | Writing one’s found in newspaper (4) |
| FIST – I’S (one’s) contained by [found in] FT (newspaper) | |
| 5 | Book raves about engaging in one time ritual (10) |
| OBSERVANCE – B (book) + anagram [about] of RAVES contained by [engaging in] ONCE (one time) | |
| 6 | Further encounter not so exciting after overthrowing chief (7) |
| REMATCH – TAMER (not so exciting) reversed [after overthrowing], CH (chief) | |
| 7 | Medical supplier, graduate, included in that woman’s itinerary (9) |
| HERBALIST – BA (graduate) contained by [included in] HER (that woman’s) + LIST (itinerary) | |
| 8 | Regular comment on a break in communications (4,3,4,4) |
| WISH YOU WERE HERE – Cryptic definition. ‘Break’ in the sense of ‘holiday’. | |
| 13 | Lout, behold, and daughter boarding helicopter (10) |
| CLODHOPPER – LO (behold) + D (daughter) contained by [boarding] CHOPPER (helicopter). I didn’t know this meaning of the answer as to me a ‘clodhopper’ has always been a heavy boot or shoe. | |
| 15 | One who may be responsible for this minor smelting? (9) |
| IRONSMITH – Anagram [smelting] of THIS MINOR. &lit. | |
| 18 | Right thinking is captured in my nonsense, on reflection (7) |
| TORYISM – IS contained by [captured in] MY + ROT (nonsense) reversed [on reflection] | |
| 20 | Chap leading sailors round very rural town (7) |
| MALVERN – MALE (chap) + RN (sailors) containing [round] V (very) | |
| 23 | Some ready for place of confinement (5) |
| POUND – Two definitions, the first with reference to money | |
| 24 | Liberals work for upset in election (4) |
| POLL – LL (liberals) + OP (work) reversed [upset] | |
(I had to go so far down the results to find my name that at first I thought I must have underperformed hugely; in fact, it turns out that there are more neutrinos than you would think if you don’t normally look at the leaderboard after midday).
Got stuck on a train tonight coming out of London so decided to have a go at the Mephisto from Saturday. Was tough but yielded a little after some effort.
Pleasantly surprised to get 6 answers in the grid which is about 6 more than I ever have!
3 month challenge: 11/13.
I’m pretty stubborn. I think I get it from my mum. She was an incredibly stubborn person.
Took about 45 min of actual solving time across 4 sittings – so about average difficulty for me.
Had seen this ‘antelope’ before, so he was quite an early entry. We have a suburb called MALVERN, so it was only a minor holdup and a geography query afterwards to check that there was a place over there as well. This meaning of FIST was new to me and couldn’t find it anywhere – it was my last in with an “it can’t be anything else”.
Couldn’t parse REMATCH – got fixated on TCH (‘not so exciting’) and AMER (as an alternate for AMEER which was an alternate to EMIR which is a ‘chief’).
Enjoyable challenge.