Beelzebub 1,324

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I know that Gaufrid has been finding Beelzebub to be leaning towards the easier end of the spectrum recently. I can’t say I’ve always found the same, but certainly this one all came together rather smoothly.

A potential exception is 18 down, which I can’t seem to find in my Chambers, so perhaps readers can confirm or correct as appropriate.

*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Hover to expand abbreviations.

Across
1 SHORT-STAFFED – STAFF in (THE RODS)*.
11 CANNONEER – NO ONE in CANER.
12 CURE – CUR[s]E.
13 URDY – derived from urdé, and the duplicated component in [h]URDY-[g]URDY.
14 WARREN – RE in WARN.
15 TAILORED – (DIOR ET AL)* and &lit.
16 FOND – two definitions. Here I think “dotard” is used in the sense of “one who dotes [on]” rather than “someone showing the weakness of old age”.
17 ERISTIC – (R + IS) in CITE<.
20 LECLANCHE CELL – LE + CLAN + C[ar] + (CE in HELL).
24 ALGIERS – G in ISRAEL*.
26 CURB – [ministe]R in CUB.
27 TESTATOR – TEST + ROTA<. “Leaving” as in bequeathing.
29 ALDINE – D in A LINE.
30 YOKE – YOK + E[quity].
31 SPIN – NIPS<.
32 DECUSSATE – (ECUS + S) in DATE.
33 HORS DE SAISON – (RADISHES SOON)*.
Down
1 SCUTTLE CASK – SCUTTLE + C + ASK.
2 HARARE – HA + RARE.
3 ON DIT – ON + D + IT.
4 TO-DO – two definitions: performance/as yet unstarted.
5 SNARING – A in (Sn + RING).
6 TELESCIENCE – ((CIE + N) in SELECT*) + E.
7 FRASIER – FRA + (I in SER).
8 EUROPE – RUE< + [h]OPE.
9 DRENT – R in DENT.
10 KENDAL GREEN – KEN + ENLARGED*.
18 RALENDS – R + A + LENDS.
19 THESEUS – THESE + US.
21 CARDIO – (I’D + RAC[e])< + 0.
22 LOOK TO – (OK + T) in LOO.
23 GULPH – GULP + H.
25 STOAS – S + TOAS[t].
28 TOSA – the idea is that either [s]TOAS* or STOA[s]* could give you TOSA.

 

3 comments on “Beelzebub 1,324”

  1. There is another abbreviation for King, you know…

    I’ve rambled on at greater length about difficulty on the latest update at the website.

  2. Re 18d The word has spelling variants. I don’t know whether the spelling here is the preferred one (which you will get following Beelzebub’s suggestion at #1) or its variant.

  3. I didn’t find this quite as easy as the previous two I’d done, but it all fell out sometime Sunday evening. Mind you, I couldn’t parse 12ac, so thanks for the explanation. Took me a while to parse 16ac until I finally bothered to look it up in Chambers.

    It does seem that Beelzebub has set a little trap with 17/18 and that crossing “king”. Fortunately, I knew KALENDS and that went in early. I knew neither EKISTIC nor ERISTIC but I see from Chambers that both could be about settlements, but different types of settlement. 🙂

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