Vinyl1 posted after last week’s puzzle that he had a few questions over this one. I didn’t fare too badly, though there was one abbreviation that I didn’t find in Chambers and had to look up to verify a term. It might have been in my favor that there are a number of US-centric terms, and a few I run into on a regular basis.
The run of grids with 90-degree symmetry continues! There’s some generous checking here which made it easier to figure out the longer entries.
With Mephisto puzzles, definitions (the first of which is underlined) can be verified in Chambers, so I will focus on the wordplay here.
Away we go….
| Across | |
| 1 | Southerner’s horse securing a start in hunt (8) |
| SCALAWAG – SCAG(heroin, horse) containing A, LAW(the start of a hunt) | |
| 7 | Marine creature going round in shallow pool endlessly (4) |
| SALP – the shallow pool is a PLASH, remove the last letter | |
| 10 | Two chaps prepared meat in eg Dubai (5) |
| HALAL – the chaps are HAL and AL, and prepared is an adjective | |
| 11 | Rock tackles panic arising from gas shortage (7) |
| ACAPNIA – AA(rock) containing an anagram of PANIC | |
| 13 | Police releasing pirates as before (9) |
| ALGERINES – anagram of RELEASING | |
| 14 | No honeyed drink brought back or spirit (6) |
| DAEMON – NO and MEAD(honeyed drink) all reversed. By funny coincidence, there is a meadery just around the corner from me, and I stopped in to pick up a few bottles just before solving this puzzle. | |
| 16 | Scratching face, old Scotsman with a beard (4) |
| AWNY – remove the first letter from SAWNY(old Scotsman) | |
| 17 | Emerge from fence, villain finally nicked (6) |
| ECLOSE – ENCLOSE(fence) missing the last letter of villaiN | |
| 18 | Evil is found in trade by exchange — sign of a bastard (11) |
| BAR-SINISTER – SIN(evil) and IS inside BARTER(trade by exchange) | |
| 20 | Molar apt to play up? Ingest one (11) |
| PARACETAMOL – anagram of MOLAR and APT containing ACE for an all-in-one clue | |
| 23 | Neighbour swallows Liberal line pretty much (6, two words) |
| ALL BUT – ABUT(neighbour) containing L(Liberal) and L(line) | |
| 25 | Favourite place for relatives (4) |
| BROS – double definition | |
| 27 | An event touring Alaska shows rare horses (6) |
| TAKHIS – THIS(an action, event or circumstance) containing AK(Alaska) | |
| 29 | Champ rallies on getting eagles (9) |
| ALLERIONS – anagram of RALLIES,ON for heraldic eagles | |
| 30 | Work with willow is comparatively dense (7) |
| GOOSIER – GO(work) and OSIER(willow) | |
| 31 | Skirt length one backed for dancing girl (5) |
| ALMEH – HEM(skirt), L(length), A(one) all reversed. Remember one = A is OK in Mephisto, but not in the daily Times | |
| 32 | Troops used after ending of police protection (4) |
| EGIS – GIS(troops) after the last letter in policE | |
| 33 | They arrange meets and after removing wheel, sort tyres out (8) |
| TRYSTERS – anagram of SORT,TYRES minus O(wheel) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Some in school went halves on leaving (4) |
| SHAD – SHARED(went halves in) with RE(on) removed, the school being of fish | |
| 2 | Red wine catalogue taken by a Midlands soccer team (7) |
| CATAWBA – CAT(catalogue), A, WBA(West Bromwich Albion, midlands soccer team). I had to look up the soccer team. I live less than 100km from the Catawba river and the major growing region for this grape. I can’t say I’m a fan, red wine is a stretch, it is a funny-smelling rose. | |
| 3 | Nearly all changed? Only for fiscals (9) |
| ALLENARLY – anagram of NEARLY,ALL | |
| 4 | The French come with volumes, no end of reading (6) |
| ALLONS – GALLONS(volumes) minus the last letter in readinG | |
| 5 | Thorny stuff catching pedestrian jogging in a wet Beijing (11) |
| WAG-N-BIETJIE – anagram of A,WET,BEIJING and I was glad almost all the letters were checked | |
| 6 | Fish unknown in US port (4) |
| GARY – GAR(fish), Y(unknown). I’ve stopped for a break in Gary, Indiana on my way to Chicago once, and I have a distinct memory. It is a drab port on Lake Michigan, birthplace to a number of Jacksons, and I remember seeing a beach that I thought looked nice, and then saw it was right next to a nuclear reactor. | |
| 7 | Old scouts very good in shortened Latin-American dance (6) |
| SPIALS – PI(very good) in SALAS(Latin-American dance) missing the last letter | |
| 8 | Stories about ending of human rights (5) |
| LIENS – LIES(stories) containing the last letter of humaN | |
| 9 | Changes going round about order of birds (8) |
| PASSERES – PASSES(changes, as in passes down ownership) surrounding RE(about) | |
| 12 | Concerned with a strong Union, unlimited state ceremony organised (11) |
| CEMENTATORY – anagram of the inner letters of sTATe and CEREMONY | |
| 15 | Triplets, primarily accommodated in space done up, stop me moving house (9, two words) |
| MOTOR HOME – first letter of Triplets inside ROOM(space) reversed then HO(stop), ME. Terrific clue. | |
| 16 | Perk up Dad, and face time of being old (8) |
| APPANAGE – reverse PA(dad) then PAN(face) and AGE(time of being old). Perk is an abbreviation for perquisite | |
| 19 | Always storing cut of meat in old conveyor (7) |
| ELOINER – EER(always) containing LOIN(cut of meat) | |
| 21 | One born Elizabeth to become senior sister (6) |
| ABBESS – A(one), B(born), BESS(Elizabeth) | |
| 22 | Fruit and nuts unopened (6) |
| ANANAS – BANANAS(nuts) missing the first letter | |
| 24 | Looks good for mathematician’s term (5) |
| LOLOG – LO and LO(looks) then G(good). Found in Chambers under LOGLOG | |
| 26 | Small fly found in cored apples perhaps (4) |
| FRIT – remove the middle from FRUIT(apples, perhaps) | |
| 28 | Second year students issuing positive notes (4) |
| SOHS – in the US, second year students are SOPHOMORES, abbreviated to SOPHS, remove the P(positive) | |
The other ones I couldn’t parse were awny, catawba, and appange. This was not a problem, as in every case the answer was quite evident. I couldn’t find goosier in my Chambers, although goosey is there.
I’ve got to admit, wag’n’bietjie is one you don’t see every day – the blogger was not the only one who relieved that it was well-checked.
I also wondered about ‘place(s)’ in 25ac.