Beelzebub 1,354

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A reasonably swift solve this week, with a couple of tricky moments that had me relying on Chambers.

14 across could have been PEBI or PEBA if you hadn’t heard of it (I hadn’t), while in 21 across neither the anteater nor the resinous tree were familiar, so an education in flora and fauna was certainly had this week. Which is no complaint whatsoever.

4 down is excellent, and certainly my stand-out Beelzebub clue of the year so far.

I’ve fallen at the very final hurdle, of course: the very last three words of the final clue elude my explanations. I suspect it’s just a failure of my Chambers-rifling skills, or perhaps just an out-of-date copy of same.

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

Across
1 FORM CRITICISM – R in (I’M + COSMIC RIFT)*.
11 LOADLINE – NIL< in LOADE[e].
13 FAST WORKER – R in (WEAK FORT’S)*
14 PEBA – E in (Pb + A). Apparently another name for the nine-banded armadillo.
15 RADIATA – (AID in A TAR)<.
16 DRIBBLE – R[ain] in DIBBLE.
18 MISHAP – M1 + SHAP.
19 ROSTRA – OR< + ARTS<.
21 TAMANU – TAMAN[d]U. It took a bit of anagram-based Chambers searching to find the “resinous” tree, I’ll admit.
23 ASQUAT – QU in (A SAT).
24 CAPORAL – CAP + ORAL.
25 GARNISH – RN in Lillian GISH.
28 VILE – [ser]VILE.
30 ORIENTATED – (ROTTEN IDEA)*.
31 ANARCHIC – ARCH in [p]ANIC.
32 COUP DE THEATRE – (CHEATED TROUPE)*.
Down
1 FLAPDRAGON – FLAP + DRAG ON.
2 OOZE – (E + ZOO.
3 RABBIS – R + ABB + IS.
4 CLAY-BRAINED – (BARD + A NICELY)*. This is particularly nice, since it is a Shakespeare word meaning “stupid”: Bard with a nicely turned synonym for “stupid”
5 RISK – [f]RISK.
6 INTRENCHANT – TRE[y] in (INN + CHANT)*.
7 ISODIAPHERE – IS + (O + PAID<) + HERE.
8 CHRISM – IS in (CH + RM).
9 ILKA – [s]ILK A[ccessories].
10 SMETANA – (MET + A + N) in SA.
12 CRAPULENCE – (PULE in CRAN) + [aceti]C + [juic]E.
17 ROSARIO – SARI in ROO.
20 TUNE UP – UT< + NEU + P.
22 ARIGHT – (RIG + H) in [loc]AT[ion].
26 RIMU – I’M in RU.
27 PTAH – PT + AH.
29 LEIR – two definitions perhaps? “Carlyle” is Thoma Carlyle, leading us to a Scottish word for teaching, but the “old Victorian dude” escapes me. Clue was Carlyle’s teaching old Victorian dude.

 

3 comments on “Beelzebub 1,354”

  1. Hi Simon

    If I have rebuilt the grid correctly from your other answers, then 29dn could be LAIR. In Chambers 2014, lair[3] is Scots for lore[1] and lair[4] is obsolete Australian slang for a flashily dressed man.

  2. Thanks Pelham, I’ll buy that. We should all be aware by now, shouldn’t we of Victorian being a possible Australian?

    John Henderson did it, for example, in a clue for one of his Derby S&B puzzles.

    Cryptic Sue is a Victorian (7)

    (And Cryptic Sue liked the clue so that’s all right.)

  3. Thanks, chaps. “Leir” comes up so often in these sorts of puzzles that I wrote it in almost without hesitation. But indeed the second letter is unchecked, allowing LAIR.

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