This seemed to be about average difficulty for Beelzebub, though with plenty of long anagrams and a relatively high number of forays north of the border.
I made life difficult for myself by writing in PHRENOLOGY at 10ac, in what would seem to be a valid answer to the clue. The mistake was spotted when 5ac and later 1ac were written in, leading to some unlikely opening letter combinations for a number of down entries.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1/12/26 | CHUCK-WILL’S-WIDOW – CHUCK + WILL (Shakespeare)’S WIDOW. |
| 5 | SCLERAL – ERA in (SC + LL). |
| 10 | NEPHROLOGY – (LONGER HYPO)*. |
| 11 | ERINGO – E[r]RING + O. |
| 14 | RUSSULAE – (USUAL R[o]SE)*. A genus of mushrooms apparently capable of provoking a great deal of frustration in some corners of the mushroom identification community. |
| 15 | OINTS – [j]OINTS. |
| 17 | ISLAND-HOPPED – (APED DOLPHINS)* &lit. |
| 19 | DISPLEASANCES – (I’S + PLEAS) in DANCE. |
| 23 | ALTOS – A + LOST, with the T (“tenor”) move forwards. |
| 25 | ACUTANCE – (CUT in (A + AN)) + CE. CE is the logo we see on a number of products, indicating that they achieve certain standards of safety. |
| 27 | HEELER – EEL in HER. |
| 28 | SLAISTERED – (DIESELS + ART)*. |
| 29 | YANKEES – (SEEK + NAY)<. |
| 30 | DNASE – (E + SAND)<. |
| Down | |
| 1 | CTENOID – (NOTICED)*. I spent quite some time thinking this was going to be SAW-something. |
| 2 | HORTI SICCI – HISTORIC* + CI. |
| 3 | UNION – I in NON-U<. |
| 4 | CENOTAPH – (PA + TONE)< in CH. |
| 5 | SHOULDER NOTE – (ROUND THE SOLE)*. |
| 6 | CROSS-HATCHES – CROSS + HATCHES. |
| 7 | LOWSE – S in LOWE. |
| 8 | ROLL-UP – LL (lines) in ROUP. |
| 9 | LYSED – (Y + S) in LED. |
| 13 | LATECOMERS – (SOME CLARET)*. |
| 16 | SPALPEEN – (PAL + P[late]) in SEEN. |
| 18 | DESERVE – D + [r]ESERVE. |
| 20 | SOUDAN – UDA in SON. |
| 21 | GAWSY – (Y + SWAG)<. |
| 22 | TAWSE – [haw]ES WAT[er]<. |
| 24 | TILDA – L[ove] in ADIT<. |
Snap with 10ac. Although it was just getting 5ac that tipped me off that something might not be right. (There are some words in Chambers beginning cn-, but nothing seemed to fit.) Then I got 3d.