Beelzebub 1,256

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After a few rather challenging weeks on the trot, this puzzle seemed a little more tractable. In fact I was back to my old tricks of thinking I’d finished the whole thing unaided, then realising I’d a single square wrong.

At 6 down I’d had to decide between the similarly plausible EAR-PIERCING and FAR-PIERCING. At the time FARING seemed more likely to be a real word than EARING, but this turned out to be wrong. Still, one surreptitious extra pen stroke and the F became an E with no Tipp-Ex required.

*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.

Across
1/10 FLUTTER THE DOVECOTS – (DUTCH VOTERS FLEE TO + [extremis]T)*.
7 VESTA – from V[i]STA, with E instead of I.
12 EARL – [p]EARL.
13 ARRAS – A + R + RAS.
15 AMALFI – ALF in AMI. I guess the “chauvinist” in question is Alf Garnett.
16 ARRAYER – ARR + AYER. I wasn’t familiar with the philosopher, but the named seemed quite plausible.
18 SNIDE – S + NIDE.
19 UNITED KINGDOM – (KIN + G) in (ODD MINUTE)*.
20 ETHANE – E + (An in THE). I guess “old Argon” means that An was once the chemical symbol for Argon. It’s Ar these days, of course..
21 ENERVE – NEVER* + [jun]E.
23 FAT CONTROLLER – (FACT NOT)* + (RE + L + L)<. A fictional railway official, of course.
26 UTICA – [therap]UTIC A[ctivity].
28 SIMARRE – MAR in SIRE.
29 INTRON – INTRO + [evolutio]N.
30 PORNO – RN in POO. All a bit racy!
31 ARTY – [t]ARTY.
32 ENROL – N in LORE<.
33 EGGLESS – G in [l]EGLESS.
Down
1 FEAGUE – F[ox] + [l]EAGUE.
2 LAMENTATION – LA + MEN + TA + INTO*.
3 URALI – URALI[c].
4 TAFT – F in TAT.
5 ERIODENDRON – [p]ERIO + END + [trimme]R + ON.
6 EAR-PIERCING – (PIER + C) in EARING.
8 EVANGELY – (VAN in EG) + ELY.
9 SAYID – Y in SAID.
11 AD REM – from DREAM, with the A “promoted”.
14 RACKETEER – RACKET + [p]EER.
17 STACCATO – STAC[k] + COAT*.
22 ERINYS – IRE< + NYS.
23 FUSEE – US in FEE.
24 TIMER – T in TIER.
25 LORRE – [anoth]ER ROL[e]. Peter Lorre, of course.
27 SNOG – S + NOG.

 

2 comments on “Beelzebub 1,256”

  1. Thanks Simon and acknowledgment of the powers of the Evil One. Just off to start today’s.

  2. I confidently entered ERROL for 25dn (for Errol Flynn, of course). Took me a while to untangle the mess that left in the bottom right.

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