I didn’t notice it while solving, but we’ve an unusual grid with which to work this week. In my own solving and blogging memory, Beelzebub has always been set on a 12*12 grid, whereas today we’ve a 13*11 to fill.
There doesn’t seem to be any particular reason for this: I didn’t spot any themes or Nina-like activity. Perhaps it’s just our setter taking advantage of the increased paper real estate available since the design of the New Review’s puzzle page was slightly rejigged a few weeks ago. Perhaps we’ll never know.
Apart from that, a puzzle of Beelzebub’s usual high standard, if a little tougher than some I’ve blogged recently. Perhaps the inclusion of a couple of 13-letter words was the reason for that.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BASE RATE – SERA in BATE. |
| 7 | ARAB – A + BAR<. |
| 11 | USAGE – U + SAGE. |
| 12 | REGATTA – (A + T+ T) in REGA[l]. |
| 13 | MALLEMAROKING – (MELL< + OAR*) in MAKING. Somehow the world is a better place for there being a word meaning specifically “the carousing of seamen in icebound ships”. |
| 17 | LETTED – LET + TED. |
| 18 | SIGHFUL – FISHGLU[e]*. |
| 20 | ETERNE – [di]ETER NE[ver]. |
| 21 | SVELTE – (L in VET) in SE[t]. |
| 22 | PIRAGUA – A in (AUG + RIP)<. |
| 23 | HALOID – HALO + ID. |
| 27 | PANDICULATION – I in (NOT A LUCID NAP)<. Great clue. |
| 28 | PREEMIE – MEER< in PIE. |
| 29 | MEDIC – MEDIC[i]. | 30 | CEDE – hom. of “seed”. |
| 31 | FRESCADE – (R + ESC) in FADE. |
| Down | |
| 1 | BUMBLE-PUPPY – (UP in PP) in (BUM + BLEY). The BLEY is in fact from the fish which is also named the “bleak”. |
| 2 | ASAFETIDA – A + SAFE + TID + A. |
| 3 | SALUTER – (A RESULT)*. |
| 4 | REEL – RE[b]EL. |
| 5 | ASMODEUS – MODE in (A SUS). |
| 6 | TRANSVALUER – (VASTER LUNAR)*. |
| 7 | AGOG – GO in Ag. |
| 8 | RAKEHELL – [b]RAKE + HELL[o]. |
| 9 | AT IT – I in ATT. |
| 10 | WAGGLEDANCE – WAG + (ED in GLANCE). Hands up who else knew this word thanks to the beer of the same name. |
| 14 | NAUTILOID – (A DILUTION)*. |
| 15 | STRANDED – RAND in STED. |
| 16 | FISH-GLUE – (IS + Hg) in FLUE. |
| 19 | FLORIDA – RI in ADOLF<. |
| 24 | KNEE – K + EEN<. From KEEN, nearly all of which has been “twisted”, hence reversed. |
| 25 | RIME – [winte]R + [t]IME. |
| 26 | DAMS – MAD< + S. |
Totally failed to notice the grid size. Also found the left side much harder than the right. For a change, I didn’t finish it on Sunday night, still having 24 and 30 to get. Finally searched the dictionary on Monday afternoon to find 24 which immediately gave me 30.
I agree with your comment about 13, and I had heard of the waggledance long before discovering there was a beer of that name.
I noted a while back that both Azed and Mephisto were using the 13×11 grids, so raised the issue with the esteemed editor, who reckoned he could squeeze such a grid in. The redesign wasn’t part of my thinking at all, but it’s helpful. The number of clues isn’t that different from the 32-36 of the 12×12 grid, so in that sense it’s not much bigger, other than in one dimension. And it allows words like MALLEMAROKING, of course.