Beelzebub 1,346 – Fifteensquared

The closing date for Beelzebub was postponed until today for the obvious festive reasons, hence the delayed blog post.

I don’t have a great deal of notes as it’s been a fairly long week, but I think I at least understood everything this time, suggesting I found it less of a struggle than sometimes.

Some nice long words in there though, and I enjoyed unteasing the wordplay for them, in particularly 9 down and 30 across.

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

Across
1	USUCAPT – CAP in (US + UT). It took me a while to spot the wordplay, but “ut” and “do” are both names for the same musical note.
7	ABBOT – B in A BOT.
12	NONE – from NEON, but with the E shifted.
13	AWEIGH – AWE + [h]IGH.
14	SUBSCRIBABLE – (AS CLUB BRIBES)*.
15	EREWHILE – WERE< + (L in HIE).
17	ILLUSIVE – IV in ILL USE.
19	CYTISI – C + Y + (I + SIT)<.
20	MOSS – MO[ra]SS.
21	AHEM – A HEM.
23	SHAMBA – SHAM + BA.
25	MORESQUE – MORES + QU[it]E.
28	QUIRINAL – QUIR[k] + IN AL[l].
30	LIBIDINOSITY – LIB + (IN IDIOTS)* + [sagacit]Y.
31	ROLLER – two definitions.
32	HAET – A in HET.
33	YRENT – [par]TNER Y[ou]<.
34	RECYCLE – CYCL[amen] in REE.

Down
1	UNSEX – ‘UNS + EX.
2	SOURLY – from HOURLY, swapping H for S.
3	UNBETTERABLE – (BUTLER BEATEN)*.
4	ANCHISES – (HAS SINCE)*. Father of Aeneas.
5	PURI – PURI[tan]. I had one just this evening.
6	TAILLE – IL in TALE.
8	BEADSMAN – DSM in BEAN.
9	BIBLIOMANIAC – BIB + (MA in LION) + I + AC.
10	OGLE – [b]OGLE.
11	THERESA – T + HERE + SA.
16	LIMEKILN – LIKE< in LIMN.
18	UNHEROIC – (OUR NICHE)*.
19	CAMELRY – CAME + L + RY.
22	SQUIRR – (QU in SIR) + R.
24	BOATEL – BO + A TEL.
26	FLYTE – FLY + T’ + E.
27	DIOR – I in ROD<.
29	IN RE – N in IRE.

1 comment on “Beelzebub 1,346”

I can’t remember much about this, especially with Christmas intervening, but I did have a note that I couldn’t parse 1ac, so thanks for the explanation. Having seen it, all I can say, “D’oh!”

Comments are closed.