Greetings barred-grid fans.
Two of my greatest enjoyments in doing a Mephisto puzzle are the grid construction and the visits to the outer regions of Chambers, and this puzzle supplies plenty of both. A generous grid with 90-degree symmetry leading to a large fully-checked chunk in the middle and some clever wordplay for some obscure words.
I hope you all solved it and the puzzle didn’t leave you heated, blanched or barbecued.
In Mephisto puzzles definiations (the most direct of which is underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will be focusing on wordpay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | A pole proclaims my job in saloon, say, at capital’s west side (6) |
| BARBER – BAR(saloon) next to the first half of the capital city of BERlin | |
| 5 | Lined up fairly, it’ll vanish with due processing (6) |
| QUEUED – QUITE(fairly) missing IT, then an anagram of DUE | |
| 10 | We study demersal life in high seas, caution is turned out (9) |
| OCEANAUTS – anagram SEAS,CAUTION minus IS | |
| 11 | Hazard is torpedoing safe journey back (6, two words) |
| SEA FOG – anagram of SAFE then GO(journey) reversed | |
| 13 | Second concern initially dodged (5) |
| OTHER – BOTHER(concern) missing the first letter | |
| 15 | Extreme pressure by French out of magistrates, as before (6) |
| EPHORS – EP(extreme pressure) next to HORS(“out of” in French, particularly in HORS de combat) | |
| 16 | Greek’s keynote brooded over plateaux (7) |
| MESETAS – MESE(keynote in Greek muic), then SAT(brooded) reversed | |
| 17 | Large Australian on a possible feature of rock pool (4) |
| ALGA – LG(large), A(Australian) after A | |
| 18 | Ironic rejoinder here! Donut’s barely changed alas (10, three words) |
| YOU DON’T SAY – YO! (here!), then an anagram of DONUT’S, and AY(alas) | |
| 21 | As in poor taste covering what Elizabethan wore on Sunday (10, two words) |
| STATUTE CAP – UT(as) inside an anagram of TASTE and CAP(covering) | |
| 24 | Deer got up having hind part tucked in (4) |
| ROES – ROSE(got up) with the end letter moved back a space | |
| 25 | Swashbuckler’s thrust before gallant advance leading to fuss (7) |
| PASSADO – PASS(advance as in a curriculum), then ADO(fuss) | |
| 27 | Colouring material in half of an attachment (6) |
| ANATTA – half of AN ATTAchment | |
| 29 | New decorator is more fastidious (5) |
| NICER – N(new) ICER(decorator) | |
| 30 | Unknown or mostly unofficial delivery at Lords? (6) |
| YORKER – Y(unknown), OR, then KERB(unofficial trade) missing the last letter | |
| 31 | Our greed’s corrupting game (9, two words) |
| RED GROUSE – anagram of OUR,GREED’S | |
| 32 | Refurbished store with a source of aphrodisiac? (6) |
| OSTREA – anagram of STORE, then A | |
| 33 | Yak hesitantly nearing one bound to graft cut cable (6) |
| HAWSER – HAW(yak or talk hesitantly) next to SERF(one bound to graft) missing the last letter | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Pneumatic tyres finally in sudden increase over year (6) |
| BOSOMY – last letter of tyreS inside BOOM(sudden increase) then Y(year) | |
| 2 | Loads last of these aboard warships (5) |
| REAMS – last letter of thesE on RAMS(warships) | |
| 3 | Old golfer’s lofted ball: doubly excellent set up (6) |
| BAFFED – FAB and DEF(both excellent) reversed | |
| 4 | English present a moment ago in Holyrood (4) |
| ENOW – E(English), NOW(present) | |
| 5 | In the capacity of mouth’s accumulation of greens? (10) |
| QUAESTUARY – QUA(in the capacity of), ESTUARY(mouth) | |
| 6 | I advocate impractical reform and put it so in shake-up (7) |
| UTOPIST – anagram of PUT,IT,SO | |
| 7 | Uniform height in revolutionary Lyon is unconscionable (6) |
| UNHOLY – U(uniform) then H(height) in an anagram of LYON | |
| 8 | Always good to drain marsh (9) |
| EVERGLADE – EVER(always), G(good), LADE(drain with a ladle). I’ve never seen this as singular. | |
| 9 | Shoot up with special aluminium fin (6) |
| DORSAL – ROD(gun, shoot) reversed with S(special), AL(aluminium) | |
| 12 | Face father pressed by whopping herbivore (10, two words) |
| GIANT PANDA – PAN(face) and DA(father) under GIANT(whopping) | |
| 14 | Pic goes on developing the art of farming (9) |
| GEOPONICS – anagram of PIC,GOES,ON | |
| 19 | A knight in old yard finds Royalist’s sheltering spot? (7, two words) |
| OAK TREE – A, KT(knight) inside O(old), REE(yard). Referring to King Charles | |
| 20 | Brother non-com and French nationalist general (6) |
| FRANCO – FRA(brother) and NCO(non-com) for the combining form for anything French | |
| 21 | Cases accepted by capital city’s shark (6, two words) |
| SEA CAT – CA(cases) inside SEAT(capital city) | |
| 22 | Third-party deed is more amiss revolving round Conservative (6) |
| ESCROW – WORSE(more amiss) reversed containing C(Conservative) | |
| 23 | Hebe is one more sorry in speech (6) |
| POURER – sounds like POORER(more sorry). Hebe was cupbearer to the gods. | |
| 26 | Chap such as Big Toomai deployed this in riverbank, usefully (5) |
| ANKUS – hidden inside riverbANK USefully. Glad the wordplay was easy on this, I had to look up that Big Toomai was an elephant keeper in The Jungle Book | |
| 28 | From times gone by mock a wartime restriction (4) |
| DORA – DOR(mock), A | |
Generally I found this of mid-level difficulty and very enjoyable. The pun across the top was helpful again.
I was also slightly surprised by the singular EVERGLADE, but it at least seemed plausible, even if LADE had to be taken on trust for drain.