One of my fastest Beelzebub solves of recent times, as witnessed by me blogging this on the Sunday, for once. There is just one – at 29ac – for which I can find no reference. Some interesting, Azed-like clueing today.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ASSISTS – [b]ASSISTS. |
| 7 | SABER – SAB + ER. American spelling of “sabre”. |
| 11 | RE-EMERGE – REE + (G[o] in MERE). |
| 12 | EASEL – [w]EASEL. |
| 13 | RAJA – (A JAR)<. |
| 14 | AN OAKEN TOWEL – (AWAKEN ONE LOT)*. |
| 15 | PHYLARCH – HYL[e] in PARCH. |
| 18 | TORC – T OR C. |
| 19 | AUSTRAL – ST in AURAL. |
| 21 | UPFRONT – F in (U + PRONT[o]). |
| 22 | ACNE – C in (A + N + E). |
| 24 | EDENTATA – EDEN + TA-TA. |
| 26 | CHESTERFIELD – (ST in CHEER) + FIELD. I didn’t know that a “canapé” is also a sofa, but I do now! |
| 29 | HAIT – HAIT[i]. This comes with smallish question mark, as I can find AIT but not HAIT. |
| 30 | ACTIN – ACTIN[g]. |
| 31 | ADJACENT – A DJ + ACE + N[o]T. |
| 32 | NAILS – N + AILS. |
| 33 | REALIGN – AL[l] in REIGN. |
| Down | |
| 1 | AHEAP – A HE + AP. |
| 2 | STANHOPE – PHAETONS*. |
| 3 | SO-SO – SOS + 0. |
| 4 | IDEAL CRYSTAL – (RADICAL STYLE)*. |
| 5 | TEHERAN – H in (TEE + RAN). |
| 6 | SEEN – hom. of “scene”. |
| 7 | SMITHSON – SMITHS + ON. James Smithson was the chap who founded the Smithsonian. |
| 8 | AEROSTATICAL – (EROICA AT LAST)*. These long anagrams are always rather fun to work out, especially when the entry is unfamiliar. |
| 9 | BRAWL – BRAW + L[ad]. |
| 10 | REAL ALE – (this + PINT)* is PANTELLERIA. The “this plus x anagrams to y” clue format always reminds me of Azed. I wonder what the chances of finding a decent pint of real ale in Pantelleria are, however! |
| 16 | ALOETICS – SOCIETAL*. |
| 17 | BANTLING – ANT in BLING. |
| 18 | TULCHAN – (L[ow] + CH) in TUAN. |
| 20 | UTERINE – TRUE* + [l]INE. |
| 23 | MEIJI – [ti]ME + I + J + I. |
| 25 | ADNAN – [jorda]N AND A[rabia]<, and presumably &lit, though I'm not familiar with the name. |
| 27 | EWER – [s]EWER. |
| 28 | ETUI – (I + UTE)<. |
Simon
I don’t have the clue for 29ac but, if it helps, Chambers has “haet, ha’it or hate (Scot) a whit [from the phrase deil ha’it devil have it]”