Beelzebub 1,151

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I think I dodged a bullet here. Blogging the odd-numbered puzzles meant that I didn’t have to contend with the April Fools’ Day special, and instead drew this tractable but satisfying puzzle.

That said, the vagaries of the Beelzebub competition closing dates became even more complex this week, as solvers would have had to deliver the completed puzzle to Derry Street two days before it was published in order to comply with the printed instructions. That’s clearly a simple printing error, so I’ve made a best guess as to a suitable date to blog this, based on previous weeks’ dates.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
1 HORSY – HORS + Y.
6 MADDEN – ADD in MEN.
11 ETHERNET – THE in ENTER*. Network technology introduced in 1980, and yet still the de facto standard for workplace networking.
12 TETRASTICHIC – (ART< in TEST) + I + CHIC.
13 ELIAD – ELIA + D for, presumably, an obsolete word meaning “glance”, though I don’t have Chambers here to check that.
15 COUCH – dd. of “lie down”, and also a type of grass.
16 RUN TIME – R (“take”) + MINUTE*.
18 MONTEITH – TIE< in MATCH.
19 PLENARTY – LEN[t] in PARTY.
25 POMATUM – (MA in POT) + UM.
26 ADDIO – DI in ADO, I think. Again, I can’t check DI for “gods” until this evening, but it seems feasible, and presumably from Latin.
27 QUAKE – QUA + K + E[ncounter].
28 SLANG-WANGER – S.L. + ((W + HANG) in ANGER). Great word.
29 LAITANCE – (I + TAN) in LACE.
30 ASPECT – P.E. in (AS + CT).
31 SERON – SER[m]ON.
Down
1 HETEROPLASIA – (IS A TOP HEALER)*.
2 OBELUS – O.B.E. + LUS[h].
3 RETINUES – (E + T + IN) in RUES.
4 STRATH – TRAT in SH.
5 MESOMORPH – PROMO< in MESH.
7 ANICUT – ANI + CUT.
8 DECOY – C.O. in DEY.
9 ELICIT – [r]ELIC + IT.
10 NYCHTHEMERON – (H + THEME) in (N.Y.C. + R + ON).
14 PENTOTHAL – PEN + (H in TOTAL).
17 VINTAGER – (GEAR IN TV)*.
20 LADLES – AD in SELL<.
21 AGOGIC – AGOG + I C.
22 LAUNCE – [pael]LA UNCE[rtain].
23 PUKEKO – PUKE + [soc]K + O.
24 MINAE – A in MINE.