Mephisto 3028 Don Manley with help from Henry Gray

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Mephisto
Our setter has decided to emulate Hippocrates and dabble in human biology with three forays into anatomical terminology.

Unless you’re very experienced you are unlikely to solve a Mephisto without using Chambers. The idea is that you use the precise wordplay to derive an answer that you then verify in the dictionary. 14A is a perfect example.

This was a very pleasant but easy puzzle. There’s one questionable definition at 18A. In the clues definitions are underlined. Wordplay explanation is followed by very helpful comments.

ACROSS

1 Horrible war — theatre that may account for animal deaths (10)
HEARTWATER: (war theatre)*; a tick-borne disease of domestic and wild ruminants;
11 City church outside which spear is seen (9)
LEICESTER: LEI(CE)STER; spear=LEISTER; the cathedral is where Richard III was reinterred in 2015
12 Fixer of great deal, securing honoured sportsman? (7)
MORDANT: MOR(DAN)T; great deal=MORT; DAN=honour and judo expert;
13 Those in Scotland denying Macbeth his name? (4)
THAE: THA(n)E; in the play Macbeth is thane of Cawdor
14 Famous mistress hugging one with love to make impression? (6)
NIELLO: N(I)ELL-O; an impression from an engraved surface;
15 Plenty holding female up (5)
ALOFT: A-LO(F)T;
16 Note doomed individual losing head (4)
ONER: (g)ONER; ONER is slang for an old £1 note;
17 The language when vehicle reverses on to a house (6)
NAVAHO: (VAN reversed)-A-HO; language of fascinating native Americans with matrilineal society;
18 A line made by instrument in part of female anatomy (6)
LUTEAL: LUTE-A-L; I have doubts about this definition. It means relating to the formation of the corpus luteum – a temporary endocrine structure in female ovaries. Most women are familiar with their luteal phase which is the latter phase of the menstrual cycle
24 Garlands — artist is swathed in lots (6)
TORANS: TO(RA)NS;
25 All those attending the first person in that cell (6)
GAMETE: GA(ME)TE; a mature haploid male or female germ cell which can unite with another of the opposite sex in sexual reproduction to form a zygote.
28 Some sexy strut in a walk outdoors (4)
XYST: hidden (se)XY-ST(rut); a covered garden walk in ancient Rome;
30 Wind certain to return, first hint of upset inside (5)
EURUS: SURE reversed contains U(pset); the east wind or the brother Sherlock Holmes didn’t have;
31 Speaker gets nothing right, a politician falling short (6)
ORATOR: O-R-A-TOR(y);
32 After first sign of success fool may become this? (4)
SMUG: S-MUG; S from S(uccess);
33 Confession of beautiful female having area or areas under total control (7)
IMPERIA: I’M-PERI-A; PERI=winged spirits renowned for their beauty; A=area;
34 Troy’s swathed in leaves by end of June — many trees and shrubs (9)
TILIACEAE: T(ILIAC)EA-(jun)E; family of various plants;
35 Most unhealthy-looking street hiding secret places (10)
SCRANNIEST: S(CRANNIES)T;

DOWN

1 Specialists in church music somehow sing smoothly (12)
HYMNOLOGISTS: (sing smoothly)*;
2 Last bit of the meat to separate off (5)
ELOIN: (th)E-LOIN;
3 Demons at large, captured by serving women once (7)
AFREETS: A(FREE)TS; Auxiliary Territorial Service (became the WRAC); powerful jinns
4 Criminal — one of those going to pot? (7, two words)
TEA,LEAF: two meanings 1=CRS for thief 2=whimsical reference to tea pot;
5 Big drinkers in effect much bigger than most (5)
WINOS: WIN-OS; OS=outsize;
6 A court worker — one functions as an agent (6)
ACTANT: A-CT-ANT; in grammar, a noun acting as an agent for a verb.
7 A learner joining group set up in science unit (5)
TESLA: A-L-SET all reversed; unit of magnetic flux density; slightly odd use of “set” in clue and answer
8 Legal allowance is in France at an end (7)
ESTOVER: EST-OVER; an allowance made to a person out of an estate;
9 Fond of fellow, having suppressed dreadful hate (7, two words)
DEATH,ON: D(hate)*ON;
10 Member of religious order quietly protesting (12)
PREMONSTRANT: P-REMONSTRANT; one of the order of Roman Catholic monks founded at Premontre, France, by St. Norbert in 1119
19 A cure I’m contriving in respect of a “waterworks” problem (7)
URAEMIC: (a cure I’m)*;
20 Type of drug’s good going down — one’s showing dynamism (7)
ENERGIC: unbranded drug=generic then move the “g” to give ENERGIC;
21 Pauper, according to Spooner, that is buried under heath (7)
MOOR-PAN; poor-man Spoonerism; layer of soil below heathland;
22 Shrub moderately gnarled but not terribly old (7, two words)
MAY,TREE: (moderately – old)*; I’m not allowed to refer to the Prime Minister;
23 Cave is crumbling — it may be filled with water (6)
VESICA: (cave is)*; water=urine; the urinary bladder;
26 Like a pipe a plumber finally fixed under bath (5)
TUBAR: TUB-A-(plumbe)R;
27 Classical tag that sends out a sexist message? (5)
NOMEN: NO-MEN; name of a citizen of Ancient Rome
29 Stains from fuel brought aboard ship
SOILS: S(OIL)S;

7 comments on “Mephisto 3028 Don Manley with help from Henry Gray”

  1. One of very few times where I’ve got it all right. Fortunately we had ELOIN recently, and TEA LEAF. AFREETS was annoying, as I knew the word but couldn’t remember it for the longest time. I was wondering about 7d; it occurred to me that this was a slip of the setter’s, since it’s not necessary for the surface.

    Edited at 2018-09-16 05:39 am (UTC)

  2. 18A: I think I would count the def as including “in part of”, which I think makes it OK. The anatomy involved may be temporary, but so are other parts like milk teeth. I’m not aware of an agreed duration for which tissue needs to survive to count as “part of one’s anatomy”.

    7D: I must admit to not noticing the SET duplication. So if we count it as a slip, it’s at least 50% mine.

  3. My biggest surprise here was finding that DEATH ON can mean three strangely disparate things. Let’s see if I can use it somewhere this week and not get funny looks.
  4. I’ll accept “easy” in the context of Mephistos generally: this was an oddly accessible puzzle in which the weirder bits of vocab fell into place assisted by kind cluing. Any looking up (like MOOR PAN) was done post solve to make sure I didn’t get any pink squares. Even the “shrub”, normally a no-go area, turned out to be familiar, helped by also being a tree.
    In this puzzle, XYST was a surprise: I spent a while trying to twist “a walk outdoors” into a definition of yet another anatomical feature, which is surely what it looks like.
  5. I agree the clue doesn’t quite work, as there is no indication that we need to find an adjective.

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