Beelzebub 1,008 (14/06/09)
Posted by Simon Harris on June 20th, 2009
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
I thought this was going to be the week that Beelzebub defeated me. I wrote in entirely the wrong answer at 3dn which left the NW corner rather empty until the mistake was spotted. But I got there in the end, with just the one query at 21ac.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ERUPTED – PURE< + TED. I think “adolescent” here is TED, as in “Teddy boy”. |
| 6 | EAGER – AGE “interrupting” ER. |
| 10 | CALENTURE – (A + LENT) “inside” CURE. |
| 11 | RIGHT-AND-LEFT – (FLING THAT RED)*. |
| 12 | ENROOTS – (STONE “containing” OR)<. |
| 14 | D-DAY – D[odge]D A[bruptl]Y. |
| 16 | NADIR – D[ad] “captured by” NAIR. The Nair were “a people of Kerala…who practised a peculiar system of polyandry and matriliny”. |
| 19 | DRAISENE – (IN RED SEA)*. Another name for the “dandy-horse”, an early bicycle whose name alone makes we want one. |
| 20 | POINDING – INDI[a] in PONG. |
| 21 | SPOON – The wordplay is “rather reduced circling river”. I take PO to be the river, and perhaps SO to be “rather”, but I can’t really make it work. “Spoon” is an old nautical term meaning “to run before a gale with reduced canvas”. |
| 23 | ERST – [que]ER ST[reet]. |
| 26 | TWASOME – SAW< in TOME. |
| 27 | DISCOMEDUSAE – CO “implanted in” (SEASIDE MUD)*. A wonderfully-named “order of jellyfishes with flattened umbrella”, inspiration for the most terrifying chandelier I’ve ever seen. |
| 28 | AILANTHUS – AIL + AN + THUS. |
| 29 | LAY TO – LAY + TO[o]. “Lay” as in “laity”. |
| 30 | CRASSLY – CRY “about” (ASS + L). |
| Down | |
| 1 | EARED – dd. |
| 2 | RAINDROPS – (R AND R “absorbing” 1) “on” OPS. |
| 3 | UNGRACIOUSLY – (CURSING YOU AL[l])*. |
| 4 | TATOU – TATU “involving” O. |
| 5 | ELATERIN – LATER “swallowed by” EIN. |
| 6 | ENDS – [b]ENDS. |
| 7 | AT LEAST – (ATLAS “containing” E) + T. |
| 8 | GUELDER ROSES – (LODGE USES)* “without” ERR. |
| 9 | RETIREE – 1 “involved in” RETREE. “Retree” is a term meaning slightly damaged paper. |
| 13 | SING SMALL – (SINS “seen around” G) + MALL. |
| 15 | LANDWEHR – L + (HAD NEW)* + [wa]R. |
| 17 | APSIDAL – (LAD IS PA)<. |
| 18 | SNOWCAT – NOW “brought in” SCAT. |
| 22 | PADUA – PAD + (A U)<. |
| 24 | TEENY – TEEN + Y. |
| 25 | MONO – MOON*. |
June 20th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
21a is actually SPOOM – PO in SOM(e). I didn’t see at the time, alas, that that meaning of ‘some’ is ultimately marked ‘(dialect)’ in C.
I can’t speak for Columba, but, if faced with an option between an unusual and a common word, I’ll probably go for the oddity, if only because I’ve almost certainly clued the common version several times already!
June 29th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Aha, so it did beat me after all! Thanks for the clarification.