This was certainly the most challenging Beelzebub I’ve faced in a long while. I managed one entry (27ac) during the first sitting, and a disheartening zero entries during the second.
With a bit of persistence, over a week of solving time, and a lot of cheating, I’ve got a full grid, but no great confidence in how I got there.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | CASTRAL – C + ASTRAL. |
7 | ROTA – ROT + A. |
10 | INTERPLEADER – (N in TRIPE*) + LEADER. |
11 | POTENCE – TO< in PENCE. |
13 | CARAVEL – CA + RAVEL. |
14 | TISRI – IS in TRI[p]. I made life difficult for myself here by parsing the clue as IS in TRE[k] and writing in the alternate spelling, TISRE. |
15 | PRATIE – RAT in PIE. |
17 | MASORAH – (O + R.A.) in MASH. |
21 | LIMEADE – MEAD in LIE. |
23 | CRATUR – (RUT + ARC)<. |
25 | RECAP – R + PACE<. |
26 | BARILLA – BAR + ILL + A. |
27 | RIPPLED – L[andlord] in RIPPED. |
28 | BATTLEGROUND – BAT + T + LEG + ROUND. |
29 | ESTH – [rig]HT SE[tting]<. |
30 | MOUSMEE – ME in (MO + USE). |
Down | |
1 | CIRCUMSCRIBE – (SUM* + CRIB) in CIRCE. |
2 | ANTARA – TAR in ANA. |
3 | STAROSTA – STAR + OATS*. |
4 | TEPAL – TE + PAL. |
5 | APTERAL – APT + ERA + L[arva]. |
6 | CENTROMERE – (TERM ONCE)* + RE. |
7 | RACIAL – (CA in LAIR)<. I’m not certain which type of airman is a CA, but I’m willing to believe there is one. |
8 | TERRIT – ERR in TIT. |
9 | ARRIERE-GARDE – [b]ARRIER + AGREED*. |
12 | OVERSUPPLY – 0 + VERSU[s] + P + PLY. |
16 | THALLIUM – T + (I in MULLAH)<. |
18 | HIDALGO – L in (HID + AGO). |
19 | ARENAS – (SANE + R.A.)<. |
20 | STAITH – (THAT IS)*. |
22 | DOLINE – DO + LINE. |
24 | AIDOS – AID + SO<. |
Thanks for the blog, Simon. Re 7D, I think the airman is AC (aircraftsman) with LAIR (only) being reversed.