Beelzebub 1,348

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A funny sort of week, at least in my experience.

I don’t ever time solving, but I do sometimes take the paper to the pub where I find the imperial pint to be an interesting measure of relative crossword difficulty.

And this looked to be a hard one, as after a whole pint I had just two entries written in, being 13 and 28 across. So at least I was symmetrical. However, once a couple of the longer entries fell in, progress was remarkably rapid.

Last one in was 15 down, which took a bit of rummaging in Chambers. I think the slightly ungenerous checking may not have helped.

A couple of little question marks that didn’t really cause problems: at 6 down I’ve either parsed it incorrectly, or my Chambers-rummaging skills have let me down, and I can’t explain 26 down very well at all.

Anyway, plenty to enjoy here, and thanks once again to Beelzebub for a pleasant Sunday evening solve.

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

Across
1 NIPPERKIN – NIPPER + KIN .
8 USER – [ma]USER.
12 UNINQUISITIVE – (I + N) in (UNIQUE VISIT)*.
13 WINY – WIN + [rall]Y.
14 UNTANGLED – [h]UNT + ANGLED.
17 OCREAE – 0 + CREA[t]E.
18 INANE – IN AN E.
19 ATONAL – [r]AT[i]ONAL.
20 AT ALL EVENTS – two definitions: where real fans are/anyway.
21 TRIFLE – T[ragedy] + RIFLE.
23 ERNES – (N in SERE)<.
25 SYSTEM – S[a]Y + STEM.
27 BEEFEATER – FEE< in BEATER. A “beater” is a game fellow in that he’s the one that scares the birds into taking off so they’re easier for the big brave men with guns to shoot.
28 AGAR – A + GAR.
29 ANCIENT LIGHTS – (LICENSING THAT)*.
30 GETA – GET A[way]. It took me a while to see this, but it was a nice penny-dropping moment.
31 NIELLATED – LINE* + DETA[i]L<.
Down
2 INION – [p]INION.
3 PINNATISECT – (INSTANCE + TIP)*.
4 PNYX – P[u]NY + X. Great word for a round of hangman. It’s an Athenian meeting place, apparently.
5 RUN-ON – Damon RUN[y]ON. This fell in easily since at school in Lytham I had an English teacher whose idea of teaching was to either rant about Grimsby Town for 40 minutes, or read us Damon Runyon stories. He’s a cab driver now.
6 KITCHENETTE – (ETC THEN)* in KITE?. I can’t seem to find proof that “kite” and “crate” can be synonyms, so I may have missed something. Clue was Cooking facility etc then broken up and put in crate.
7 NINETEEN – N + I NET + E’EN.
9 SILENT NIGHT – (I LENT + N) in SIGHT.
10 EVEN AS – (SANE + VE)<.
11 REDELESS – R + ED[g]ELESS.
15 DITTY BAG – DITTY + BAG. “Bag” is “interest” as in “that’s not my bag, man” which I’m led to believe people said in the sixties or so.
16 WELL-SEEN – WELLS + E[v]EN.
20 ARLENE – ((LE + N) in ERA)<. I once sat opposite Arlene Phillips on the train. She did not put her phone down once between Newcastle and London and wound the entire carriage right up.
22 SMELL – M in SELL.
24 ELATE – [pr]ELATE.
26 GAGA – One supports one displaying senility.

 

2 comments on “Beelzebub 1,348”

  1. 6dn, Chambers defines “crate” as an old aeroplane, and a “kite” is an aircraft too.

    No, I can’t see 26dn either.

    I can’t remember how long this took me, or if I found it difficult. I couldn’t parse 15dn, although I was around in the sixties. I kept on thinking of Rambling Sid Rumpo’s gander bag. Thanks for the explanation.

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