Generally quite mid-paced in terms of difficulty, I found, though there are a couple left to explain this week, at 14 across and 20 down.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | KEEL – LEEK<. |
| 5 | TRIVIAL – (I + V) in TRIAL. |
| 11 | INTERFERENCE – TER in INFERENCE. |
| 12 | NOCHEL – CH in NOEL. |
| 13 | LINK – [c]LINK. |
| 14 | GLIADINE – not sure: Tailless dormice getting a feed: protein. |
| 17 | EXIGUITY – EXI[t] + (IT in GUY). |
| 18 | EGESTA – [all]EGE STA[ff]. |
| 22 | EL PASO – PAS in Arpad ELO. |
| 23 | INTARSIA – (ARAN IS IT)*. |
| 26 | MAHRATTA – (ATTAR + HAM)<. |
| 27 | EWER – [h]EWER. |
| 28 | TIBERT – TIBER + [ca]T. Apparently the name of the cat in “Reynard the Fox”. |
| 29 | NOTONECTIDAE – NOT ONE + (A in (C + TIDE)). |
| 30 | SCENERY – ENE in SCRY. |
| 31 | SKYR – KY in SR. |
| Down | |
| 1 | KING’S EVIL – KIN + (LIVES + G)<. |
| 2 | ENOLOGY – (YGO + LONE). The “in Napa Valley” is nice, as it communicates both the North American aspect and the wine aspect. |
| 3 | LEHAR – H[ungary] in LEAR. |
| 4 | PREDETERMINE – (RED in PET) + ERMINE. |
| 6 | REUNITE – UNI in RETE. |
| 7 | IRREGULARITY – (RARE LITURGY I)*. |
| 8 | VELLUM – ‘VE + MULL<. |
| 9 | INIMICAL – [m]IMICAL. |
| 10 | ACNE – N in ACE. |
| 15 | PYROLATER – L in (TO PRAYER)*. |
| 16 | AESTHETE – THESE* in ATE. |
| 19 | ASSAYER – ASS + AYER. |
| 20 | ASHTRAY – A projectile with shaft, nothing less, where butts are found. |
| 21 | MACRON – [drinke]R in MACON. |
| 24 | LABIS – LA + BIS. |
| 25 | TWOC – TWO + C. |
14. Glis is given in Chambers – ‘eg the genus Glis, Old World dormice) etc’. ‘Tailless’ – ‘gli’.
20. I took the ‘projectile’ to be ‘shot’ and removed the’o’, nothing less.
That’s certainly the way I saw them.
Thanks as always Simon (& B).
Embarrassingly, I had to look up Glis in 14ac. 🙂
@Dormouse how embarrassing! Had worse not knowing a synonym for my surname in a pub quiz once…
Thanks, all, once again.
It’s quite gratifying that the Beelzebub posts are starting to receive a handful of comments each week. For quite some time there were usually none at all, which seemed a shame for such a high quality puzzle.