Beelzebub 1,336

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Crikey. If anyone has been thinking Beelzebub has been getting easier recently they were in for a shock today.

Or at least, I was. You probably breezed through it, but after a reasonably brisk start I ground to a complete halt. A week later there are still two that I simply cannot solve (19 across, 16 down), four that I can’t explain (1 down, 3 down, 20 down, 26 down), another question mark (4 across) and one (15 across) where I suspect there may be a typo, but where I look forward to being corrected.

Still a great crossword, as I fear we sometimes take for granted, but Beelzebub was just too good for me this week, I’m afraid.

Readers are of course invited to apply for a refund for every penny paid for this quite frankly lacklustre blogging service.

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

Across
4 DAMNEDEST – DAM + (ED in NEST). I’m not sure why ED is a “young” lad. Most remarkable mother with young lad in home.
11 AMOUR – AM + OUR.
13 ARCHY – ARCH + [mogg]Y. Alternative spelling of “archie”.
14 MANGANIC ACID – MANGA + Ni + Ca + CID.
15 ATTIC – two definitions, I think. But the second should be “storey”, shouldn’t it? Clue was Classic story.
17 REEF – From FREE, with the first F moved to the last position.
18 MEITNER – M + IE< + RENT<. Lise Meitner.
19 ?R?NOBA?T?? – Early Britons, Britons worried about early payment.
21 TEMPERATURE – TE + (PER in MATURE).
22 AGISTER – (IS GREAT)*. One that coincidentally came up in Samuel Pepys’ diary recently.
25 MIRV – (V + RIM)<.
28 OWCHE – [n]OW CHE[rished].
29 TROOP CARRIER – (RI + [a]R[my]) in CORPORATE*.
30 INUIT – U in IN IT.
31 SITUS – IT in SUS.
32 VISCOUNTY – VIS + COUNTY.
Down
1 SAMARITAN – Source of support – it’s mostly about marriage, note.
2 AMATE – A (check) MATE.
3 CONTERMINOUS – Name adopted by some in court facing trial reflecting coincidence.
5 ARACHNE – (A + CH) in Thomas ARNE.
6 MONTMORENCY – (R in (NO COMMENT)*) + Y. (To say nothing of) the dog in the rather wonderful Three Men in a Boat.
7 EACH – [r]EACH.
8 DRAFT – D + RAFT.
9 ECCENTRICITY – (C in RECENT*) + I + CITY.
10 SHIVE – S + HIVE.
12 TIME BARGAIN – I in (MANAGER BIT)*.
16 ?R??VERS? – Ray’s upset, dreadfully, about Society working the wrong way.
20 AT WORST – TWO in STAR*. The wordplay is clear, but the definition seems odd: Busy star will welcome couple…and possiby do more?
23 GARNI – GAR + IN<.
24 STOIC – I in COTS<.
26 RHEUM – it’s the rhubarb genus, but no idea beyond that: Rhubarb pip? Not now.
27 UP TO – P in OUT*.

 

6 comments on “Beelzebub 1,336”

  1. 4Dn: by convention, shortened versions of names tend to be indicated in clues by ‘boy/girl’ rather than ‘man/woman’ (no, I don’t know why either!);

    15Ac: Story(2) is a variant spelling of storey in C;

    19Ac: TRINOBANTES (ANTE in BRITONS*) – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinovantes;

    1Dn: SA + MARITA[l] + N;

    3Dn: N in (SOME IN COURT)*;

    16Dn: ARSY-VERSY (RAYS* + S in VERY);

    26Dn: two definitions – see pip(5) in C.

  2. Finger trouble Richard? 🙂

    Well, I completed it sometime Sunday. I don’t recall too much difficulty but there were several I couldn’t parse, so thanks for the explanations.

    “Story” seems to be the usual American spelling of “storey”, as Chambers points out. A few years ago there was a horror film called House. The sequel was called House II: The second story.

  4. I also found this much tougher than usual.

    However I think there is an error in 28 – in Chambers OWCHE = ouch1 but not ouch2 (which is the brooch).

  5. Oh, yes, OWCHE. I had a feeling that older editions of C had owche as the brooch as well, so I did a little digging, and that does seem to be the case. In fact, I’m inclined to think Chambers has tagged the wrong meaning (look at the etymologies, for one).

  6. Beelzebub@5

    Thanks for responding – I only have the 12th ed to rely on, but Googling etymology does suggest OWCH (no E) as a Spenserian jewel, so you must be correct that it is Chambers’ error.

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