This seemed to be around the middle of the difficulty range for Beelzebub, with lots of interesting new terms to pick up, and hopefully remember for future reference.
I’ve the tiniest of queries at 4 down, which could be as simple as a typo, or my own careless reading of Chambers.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | WATCH CAP – WAT + (C in CHAP). “Wat” is a Scots derivation from “wet”, which is quite nice, in a way. |
| 7 | ABAC – A + BAC. |
| 11 | UNHAT – from UNIAT, with H instead of I. |
| 12 | CHINA – CHINA[r]. Chinar or Chenar is the oriental plane tree. |
| 13 | STERLET – STER[n] + LET. |
| 15 | CRENELLE – NELL[y] in CREE. |
| 16 | HONOUR – ON in HOUR. |
| 17 | MERINO – [far]MER IN O[tago] and &lit. |
| 18 | JITNEY – IT in (J + YEN<). |
| 22 | RANGER – RANG + ER. |
| 23 | TURACO – A in TURCO. |
| 24 | IN ESSE – NESS in IE. |
| 25 | PROTRUDE – ROT in PRUDE. |
| 28 | NITRATE – NIT RATE. |
| 29 | URIAL – URI[n]AL. |
| 30 | SATIN – SAT IN. |
| 31 | LOCH – (H + COL)<. |
| 32 | TEMULENT – MULE in TENT. |
| Down | |
| 1 | WUSS – W + US[e]S. |
| 2 | ANTHOID – O in (ANT + HID). |
| 3 | THEANTHROPIC – THE + AN + (HR in TOPIC). |
| 4 | CARBON DATE – (BOND + A + T) in CARE. This one puzzles me a tiny bit, as it’s given as (10), while my Chambers seems to give “carbon date” as two words. Can it be hyphenated? |
| 5 | CHERRY BOUNCE – (HER in CRY) + B + OUNCE. Another name for cherry brandy. |
| 6 | ANTE MERIDIEM – (TIME REMAINED)*. |
| 8 | BILLINGSGATE – BILLING + S + GATE. |
| 9 | ANAL – [b]ANAL. |
| 10 | CARE OF – CAR + FOE<. |
| 12 | CINEMA – MEN< in CIA. |
| 14 | PERINEURAL – (ER + IN) in PLEURA*. |
| 19 | ESCROL – ESCRO[c] + L[ong]. |
| 20 | MESS TIN – IT< in (MESS + [me]N). “Mess” is an archaic form of “mass”. |
| 21 | ST PAUL – PA in STUL[m]. |
| 26 | RORO – homophone of “row, row”. |
| 27 | VENT – [e]VENT. |
Oh dear, I spent ages last Sunday night trying to get 32ac. Now I see why. I was so sure 6dn was “ante meridian” I didn’t bother to check off the letters in the anagram.
4dn, I wonder if Beelzebub got it confused with “carbonate”. 🙂
Can’t see CARBON-DATE in my Chambers at all – only CARBON DATING. I took this to be a verbal form, which pretty much requires a connection between the words, which I took to be a hyphen.