Greetings barred-grid fans!
I got through this one pretty readily, though there are a number of notes to myself about wordplay elements, I don’t have any question marks around the grid. The grid is notable in that there are two fully-checked answers, so one could complete the puzzle without finishing all the clues. This was the case for me as I solved all the lower across answers first, and did not need to look at 31 down (and it was one of the trickier wordplays).
Since most definitions in Mephisto can be confirmed in Chambers, I will focus on wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Spotted in Tours, the French composer’s happy (12) |
| TRAVEL-SOILED – T'(the), RAVEL’S(French composer’s), OILED(drunk, happy) | |
| 9 | Islander who’s opposed to tagging noisy bird (8) |
| ANTIGUAN – ANTI(opposed to), then GUAN(a loud species of bird) | |
| 11 | Hard right backed by a certain French department (5) |
| RHONE – H(hard) and R(right) reversed, then ONE(a certain) | |
| 13 | One to position flags in Washington with a VIP out in front of soldiers (6) |
| PAVIOR – anagram of A,VIP then OR(soldiers) | |
| 14 | Fool takes wrong turn for hot spot (7) |
| SUNTRAP – SAP(fool) containing an anagram of TURN | |
| 15 | Sesame Street dropped by top names in short (5) |
| BENNI – remove ST(street) from BEST(top), then N,N(names) and I(In) | |
| 18 | Police officer with cold brought around home remedy (5) |
| DINIC – DI(police officer) and C(cold) surrounding IN(home) | |
| 19 | French novelist in hospital saving a grand (5) |
| SAGAN – SAN(hospital) containing A,G(grand). Francoise SAGAN, author of Bonjour Tristesse) | |
| 20 | Fish good for number in band (4) |
| RIGG – G(good) instead of N(number) in RING(band) | |
| 23 | Royal plainly losing 100 (4) |
| LEAR – CLEAR(plainly) missing C(100), Shakespearean royal | |
| 24 | Being poor it’s hard passing over a couple of pounds (5) |
| ILLTH – IT and H(hard) containing L,L(a couple of pounds) | |
| 26 | Bird in small hut (5) |
| STILT – S(small), TILT(hut) | |
| 29 | Philosopher on what’s put over (5) |
| HEGEL – LEG(on in cricket) and EH(what) reversed | |
| 30 | Slight swelling in part of hospital with no change (7) |
| ENTASIS – ENT(part of hospital) AS IS(no change) | |
| 32 | Toshiba’s premier line about right for a tablet (6) |
| TROCHE – the first letter of Toshiba and OCHE(the line you throw from in darts) surrounding R(right) | |
| 33 | French city disallowing capital payments in advance (5) |
| ANTES – NANTES(French city) missing the first letter | |
| 34 | Arising from energy shortage, Institute latrine out of order (8) |
| INERTIAL – I(institute) and an anagram of LATRINE. Strange definition but it works if you think of how energy needs to be transferred into a body at rest. | |
| 35 | Protest about Belgian town’s sleepy state (12) |
| REMONSTRANCE – RE(about), MONS(Belgian town), TRANCE(sleepy state) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Topless celebs overlooking American city of St Paul (6) |
| TARSUS – remove the first letter of STARS(celebs), then US(American). St Paul was born in | |
| 2 | Make good turn in a single attempt (7, three words) |
| AT ONE GO – ATONE(make good), GO(turn) | |
| 3 | Card game of very little interest (4) |
| VINT – V(very), INT(interest) | |
| 4 | After ending of performance, American composer half ignored bores (5) |
| EGERS – the last letter of performancE and the the first half of George GERShwin (American composer) | |
| 5 | One perhaps off to take in blue mineral (10) |
| SAPPHIRINE – anagram of I(one) and PERHAPS containing IN | |
| 6 | Give line designed to persuade by flattery (8) |
| INVEIGLE – anagram of GIVE,LINE | |
| 7 | Woodworkers good in different sites (8) |
| EBONISTS – BON(good) in an anagram of SITES | |
| 8 | Silver coins given by father with stacks reportedly (6) |
| DARICS – DA(father) and then sounds like RICKS(stacks) | |
| 10 | Forte hotel for a northerner (4) |
| FINN – F(fine), INN(hotel) | |
| 12 | Cook arranges case of chive and seaweed (10) |
| CARRAGEENS – anagram of ARRANGES and the external letters of ChivE | |
| 16 | Standard rent said to be for bedding arrangement (8) |
| PARTERRE – PAR(standard) and sounds like TEAR(rent) | |
| 17 | Beat repetition brings trouble for playwright’s editor (8) |
| MALLECHO – MALL(to maul or beat), ECHO(repetition). One of the more amusing Chambers entries, so thanks to Tim Moorey for pointing it out | |
| 21 | Protein a German has ingested finally (7) |
| ELASTIN – EIN(a in German) containing LAST(fully) | |
| 22 | Goddess seen in this moving augmented reality (6) |
| ISHTAR – anagram of THIS, and AR(augmented reality). It made me happy to see AR in here. I’ve loved several AR experiences, from Perplex city to Ingress to Pokemon Go. | |
| 25 | Harry lashes out (6) |
| HASSLE – anagram of LASHES | |
| 27 | Russian typically with stake in Iran (4) |
| IGOR – GO(stake, bet, as in “I’ll go 20 on that”), inside IR(Iran) | |
| 28 | Rush up north for Jewish bond (5) |
| STARR – double definition, the rush being a reed | |
| 31 | Tapir seen up in Indian capital? Not the first (4) |
| ANTA – PATNA is the capital of the state of Bihar. Remove the first letter and reverse it. | |
Edited at 2021-08-08 04:33 pm (UTC)
Mitching MALLECHO is one of those bits of Hamlet that sort of stick in the memory and was a write in.
ILLTH looked weird, but I followed the wordplay and put it in anyway.
Just under 40 minutes, enjoyable.