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*. |
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.
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.
Duplicate comment removed by me, in case anyone gets confused.
Thanks for the help chaps.
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).
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).
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.