Beelzebub 1,201

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A very tough week. There was plenty to look up, both definitions and wordplay elements, much of which was only to be found in Chambers. The wordplay for 7ac eludes me, while 27ac and 28db have beaten me completely. The relevant clues have been reproduced.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
1 BANDANNA – BAND + ANNA[l].
7 ORFE – Fit to eat this fish? That’d be fine.
11 AGEING – A + (EIN in (G + G)).
13 ONCER – NO< + CE + R, and a very nice &lit.
14 REVVED – (V + V) in REED.
15 ECLAT – C in TALE<.
16 PACKAGE – KAG[o] in PACE.
17 POLYSYNDETON – POLY + SYN + NOTE<.
18 ENGUARD – (A GERUND)*.
23 EATABLE – EA + TABLE.
25 THE GODFATHER – G[overnment] in (TED HEATH FOR)*.
27 SOL?NA? – Like sand, say, at heart bowled over as tides develop.
29 HOKUM – OK in HUM.
30 KILLUT – KILL + [p]UT.
31 NICAM – C in MAIN<.
32 ASLOPE – A + S + LOPE.
33 PANG – PAN + G.
34 NYSTATIN – N.Y. + STATIN[g].
Down
1 BARB – BAR B, which would be second to BAR A.
2 NEVEL – (L + EVEN)<.
3 DIVVY UP – DIVVY + [c]UP.
4 AN ESSAY ON MAN – A[theism] + (NAMES + ANNOYS)*.
5 NOTANDA – NOT + AND + A.
6 ANECDOTALIST – (ATLAS NOTICED)*.
8 RELATE – [p]RELATE.
9 FRAGOR – RAG in FOR.
10 ENTENDER – END in ENTER.
12 GET ON – G + ETON.
17 PEATSHIP – HAPPIEST*. The writer in question is Sir Walter Scott.
19 RED ARMY – (D in REAR) + MY.
20 PATELLA – T[hese] in PAELLA.
21 BHOONA – H in (A NOOB)<.
22 WELKIN – WEL[l] + KIN.
24 LET UP – (PUT + EL)<.
26 HELOT – [t]HE LOT.
28 ?TEN – Reduced tax bound to satisfy Scots.

7 comments on “Beelzebub 1,201”

  2. 27 Solunar (to do with tides) It’s ‘granulose’, like sand. The heart is ‘anulos’ and ‘bowled over’ means it’s reversed, leading to Solunar. I don’t think ‘heart’ really leads to the majority of the word, but it’s all I came up with!

  4. Re 27, I should have said that ‘solunar’ wasn’t in Chambers – I got it from one of my other dictionaries (probably the Oxford Dictionary of English).

  5. 28dn – I had “sten” too, which Chambers does define as a Scottish word for a bound. (It’s under “stend”.)

    I couldn’t parse 7ac, either.

  6. Thanks everyone. I think I’ve just grasped 7ac. It’s that if FIT were to eat ORFE, you’d have FORFEIT, which is a fine. Very clever – too clever for me!

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